I Have A Thing For Morons
by AllHailTheQueen
Summary: Evanna Asher returns for her last year at Hogwarts, but things don't go quite as she plans. With the Order, Umbridge, and an increasingly confusing frienship with Fred, this year is her most difficult yet.
1. Chapter 1

**This is the first chapter of my very first fan fiction… I think it's fairly rough, choppy, and fragmented, but please forgive me for that. **  
**If you hated it, tell me.**  
**If you liked it, tell me.**  
**If you thought something was brilliant, or if you thought something was stupid… Tell me!**

**Disclaimer: I do not now, nor will I ever, own Harry Potter. That privilege belongs to none other than the esteemed J.K. Rowling. All I own is Eva and a few other characters.**

~*~Eva~*~

So… I'm a Seer.

I know, right? It brings to mind mystical crazy stuff, crystal balls, and prophecies.

I'm not that kind of Seer, though. Sorry to disappoint.

Seeing into the future? Can't do it. Make cryptic predictions? Can't do it. Actually, before this summer, I was a very useless kind of Seer.

I can slip into someone's mind for a few short seconds at a time. It might seem fun, but it's a lot harder, and duller, than it sounds.

I was taught that what I could do was a bit of a mix between Legilimency and Seeing. But while Legilimency can be blocked, you cannot hide yourself from a Seer. All I need is something belonging to the person, and I'm in.

My life certainly doesn't revolve around that ability, though.

I'm Evanna Asher. Eva to my friends.

Gryffindor, and proud of it. I'm the third of my siblings to go to Hogwarts. My big brother, Liam, went nine years before me, and my older sister Asha went seven years before me.

Asha was sorted into Ravenclaw, which was no surprise to anyone who knew her. If I had to compare her to somebody, I'd say she's like Hermione Granger, that genius fifth year that hangs around with Harry and Ron. Asha works for the Ministry now, in some department that deals with magical law. My parents hoped that I would follow in her footsteps and they could have two genius daughters. I was eager to please my parents when I first started Hogwarts, and I tried, I really did. But it turns out that I don't quite have the capacity for genius.

Liam was a Hufflepuff. He's a freaking artistic mastermind. He moved away a few years ago, and now he lives in a nice apartment in France. I also tried to be an artist like him, and that too failed miserably.

Also, I can't forget to mention my little brother Elliot. He's only nine years old, and he is by far my favorite sibling. Is it wrong to pick favorites?

Elliot and I are the least remarkable of my family, despite my Seer status. My mum and dad love us all, but I think they're most proud of Liam and Asha. That's alright, though. I've had plenty of time to resign myself to the fact that I have no special talent that didn't come from my parents or grandparents.

I'm just a Gryffindor girl, easily distracted and unable to hold a grudge... Gryffindors are supposed to be brave, but really, how often do you get a chance to show that off? Hardly ever, unless you're like Harry Potter. That boy is always getting into some sort of dangerous situation.

I'm a fairly happy person. I love my family, and I love my home, but Hogwarts is really where I belong.  
My two closest friends there are just like a couple extra brothers.

The Weasley twins.

I've been best friends with Fred and George since our first year here. And actually, one of my most vivid memories is the day I met the twins.

It was also the day that I broke my arm in three places, and got a minor concussion.

It was the day after the welcoming feast, and I was just standing at the top of a stairwell near lunchtime, staring at a painting that was talking to me.

Then I heard quick footsteps, and I look over, and there's this gangly, red-haired, freckled boy coming toward me, with a silly grin on his face. I smiled back at him, and then he tripped over his feet, slammed into me, and sent me tumbling down the staircase. I lay there on the stairwell, and the last thing I heard before I blacked out was the boy saying,

"Oh, god, George. I think I killed her!"

Obviously he didn't kill me, and I woke up later that evening in the hospital wing. The boy was sitting beside my bed, and another boy identical to him was busy wrapping himself up in bandages, saying

"Look, I'm a mummy!"

The boy who had knocked me down the stairs stood up, a guilty expression on his face. Before he could say anything, I smiled and said "Hi. I'm Eva. What's your name?"

It's strange, the things that bring people together.

Harry once told me that he and Ron became friends with Hermione after they fought a troll together.

While my meeting the twins wasn't near as dramatic or adventurous, it still started what became a long, close friendship with the Weasley twins.

Actually, I would be seeing them both tomorrow. My family was sending me to Grimmauld Place, headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix, so that I was easier to reach to See for them.

I was definitely not looking forward to Seeing. They already had a member coming over occasionally, and I was already sick of Seeing. Spying on Death Eaters isn't so fun, as I'm sure you can guess.

You know what? It was pretty miserable.

The Order insists I'm useful, even though I don't quite understand how a five second glimpse into what a Death Eater is doing at the moment helps. I think I'm little more than an object to most members of the Order. But I'm also not stupid.

I know that if the Death Eaters knew what I could do, they would find a way to use me too, and wouldn't even keep up the polite pretense of caring about me. And I know that the world would be a lot worse if the Death Eaters were in power.

=+= Fred =+=

I smoothed down my hair and looked in the mirror again. It still wasn't right.

Hell.

I ran my fingers through it. Oh, nice. Now it looked like I'd just finished snogging somebody.

That'll make her love you, Fred.

"You done preening, mate? She won't even be here until later." George stuck his head around the door.

"I wasn't preening."

"Which is why you've been standing in front of the mirror for a half hour, messing with your hair."

"Shut up." I said, but I followed him out of the room and down to breakfast.

Mum had us cleaning the entire day.

Grimmauld Place was nasty.

That old house-elf was doing a right terrible job at keeping the place clean. There was mold growing in the drawers. I'm no expert, but I'm fairly sure mold shouldn't just grow in random places like that.

Mum, a.k.a. Slave Driver, finally announced our work done for the day. George and Ron started up a game of Exploding Snap, and I collapsed in a chair, smoothing my hair down. All my hard work this morning to get my appearance perfect had been for naught. I looked like hell again. Plus, I think I kind of smelled like mothballs and fungus. Sexy.

I heard a door opening somewhere, then footsteps coming down the hall. My stomach started doing a weird flopping thing, and despite all my efforts to contain it, a grin broke out on my face.

I felt two soft hands cover my eyes, then a very familiar voice whispering in my ear "Guess who?"

My heart felt like it jumped out of my chest. She was finally here. I decided to play it cool, rattling off a whole list of names, even though I knew it was her. I could smell the lavender shampoo she always used, so it was a dead giveaway.

I pretended to sigh with frustration. "Oh…. Wait." I said. "Are you…Eva?"

She removed her hands and I stood up and hugged her tightly, until she began hitting my back and demanding I let her go before I suffocated her.

So much for acting casual.

"He knew it was you the whole time." George said, not even looking up from his game of Exploding Snap.

Eva grinned at me, then ran to George, throwing her arms around him and kissing his cheek. I noted the kiss with a bit of jealousy. She hadn't kissed _my_ cheek.

Mum came in then and hugged Eva and quickly whipped up a snack for her, even though Eva insisted she wasn't hungry.

"I already ate some weird soup on the Knight Bus." she said.

Mum ignored her and fixed her a bacon sandwich anyway.

Eva glanced over at me and smiled. "I'm not sure quite what was in the soup, actually. But I'm fairly sure it had scales."

I watched her as she ate the sandwich. I think I must have been staring, because George came by and smacked the side of my head.

"It's okay to blink. She won't run off." he whispered.

I elbowed him, but I made sure to watch Eva more discreetly.

She seemed even prettier than normal, I decided, but maybe that was just because I hadn't seen her since the end of last year.

Also, I think my opinion might have been just a bit biased.

Just a bit.


	2. Chapter 2

I know this Chapter is fairly slow, and for that I apologize. It's just pretty much a filler until I can rush everybody off to Hogwarts. So bear with me, and please review and tell me what you think.

I would very much appreciate it!

~*~Eva~*~

A few of the more involved members of the Order came to visit later that evening.

They disappeared into the kitchen as usual, but it wasn't a regular meeting, since they didn't even bother to put an Imperturbable Charm on the door.

"You cannot just take her out of school, Mad-Eye! I will not allow it!" yelled Molly from the kitchen.

I gripped my glass full of tea even tighter in my hands, my eyes fixed on a stain on the wall in the hallway.

Molly was in the kitchen arguing with the rest of the Order, namely Mad-Eye Moody, because he had announced his intentions to take me out of Hogwarts, and have me there at Grimmauld Place ready to See for the Order anytime they needed to. Because who cares if we mess up her education and possibly her future by pulling her out of school? She's just the girl who spies on the Death Eaters for us, she couldn't possibly have a life outside of that.

Right. Thanks, Moody. Nice to know you care.

Fred plopped down on the sofa next to me, throwing an arm around my shoulders.

"You should go in there and tell the Order that you'll be going back to Hogwarts whether they like it or not." he said, matter-of-factly.

"I think your mum is doing a fine job of arguing on my behalf. Remind me to thank her later."

"They won't take you out, Eva. They all know she'd murder them if they did."

I smiled faintly, hoping Fred was right. I loved Hogwarts, and I didn't want to be stuck at Grimmauld Place for the year.

I was already tired of it, and I'd only been here for a week.

Fred and George had complained to me about how they had been forced to clean the place already, but I didn't see that it had done much good.

It still felt musty and stuffy, and sometimes I wanted nothing more than to run outside and collapse into the grass, sucking fresh air into my lungs.

Not to mention that weird little house elf that lived in Grimmauld Place. George told me his name was Kreacher. He was nothing like the elves that worked in the kitchens at Hogwarts. His skin was wrinkled, saggy and crusty, and his pillowcase was grimy and it smelled seriously bad. I passed him in the hall one time, and got a whiff of him. Gag. Kreacher seemed to spend all his time creeping and skulking around Grimmauld Place, muttering to himself.

Being stuck here for the whole year with him was not the least bit appealing.

I didn't see how Sirius could stand it. Poor guy.

"So… do me a favor?" Fred said.

I looked suspiciously at him. "What?"

"Test out this candy. It's supposed to turn your skin and hair red."

I thought about it a moment, then held out my hand. "Sure. I like the color red."

He grinned and dropped a striped tablet into my hand. "That's my girl."

I chewed up the tablet, grimacing at the bitter taste of it. "You'll have to make it taste better if you want it to pass as candy." I said, as I watched my skin slowly turning pink, then darkening into red.

"Excellent!" said George, who was watching me as the tablet worked its magic. "Now we just have to start making them to turn people other colors."

"So when will this wear off?" I asked idly as I took a sip of my tea

George glanced shiftily at Fred.

"Well…" said George.

"You're the first person we've tried it on…" said Fred."So there's no way to turn me back to normal colors?" I asked in a calm voice. I wonder what my parents would say if I came home with red skin and red hair.

"I'm sure it'll wear off eventually." said George.

"And besides, you like red. So it's alright." Fred grinned at me."Of course it is."

The Order eventually called me into the kitchen.

I stepped in, and the Order stared. My color had started to changed, but instead of returning to normal, I was now blue.

"Fred and George?" asked Molly, her hands on her hips.

"No, I'm just naturally this color." I said with a smile, trying not to seem as nervous as I felt. I looked at the people seated, but their faces gave nothing away as to whether I would be staying here or going to Hogwarts.

"Okay, Ms. Asher." Moody announced, ignoring my strange hue. "We're allowing you to return to Hogwarts this year." "But we will regularly have somebody from the Order visit. You will be called to Dumbledore's office, which is hooked up to the Floo Network and you will be required to See for us then. Do you understand?""Yeah. I got it." I said.

Woo.

=+=Fred=+=

A bright blue Eva walked through the door to the room George and I shared.

"I have bad news for you two." she said, her voice serious.

I had been laughing at a comment George had made, but the smile slipped right off my face when she said that.

"You'll be stuck with me for another year." she continued.

"Great. Just what I wanted." complained George.

I decided to act cool and casual again, now that I was sure she would be returning to Hogwarts with us, and I stifled a grin.

"Another year with Asher. Just strangle me now, George." I said in a dramatic voice, moving over on my bed to make room for Eva.

"I was going to ask you to do the same thing." said George.

"Well, you'll both just have to strangle each other simultaneously." Eva said, smiling at the both of us.

She flopped onto the foot of the bed and leaned back against the wall, pulling some of her blue hair forward to inspect it.

"Well, all strangling aside, we think that if you just take a couple baths the color should come off of you." said George. He glanced over at me and shrugged.

We actually had no idea when it would come off. Also, we had no idea why she had turned blue after turning red. I looked at Eva's skin, and noticed that it had begun to turn slightly purple.

That couldn't be good, I thought as I scooted toward Eva.

I made a mental note to work on the ingredient quantities for that particular joke treat.

I lifted Eva's arm and pretended to be observing it for the purpose of our experiments. George shook his head at me, a little grin on his face. We both knew I was just using that as an excuse to touch her.

Eva finally shook my hands off her arm, and stood up from the bed.

"I have to get a bath. I have absolutely no desire to be purple." she said, grimacing at the color her skin had turned.

"Need any help?" I called to her as she left the room.

"I think I can manage."

~*~Eva~*~

The color did come out, but George had been wrong about how many baths it would take.

Seven. It took seven baths for my skin and hair to return to normal, and my hair still had a dark purple tint to it when I finally dragged myself to bed around midnight.

School lists came the next morning, and Molly ran off to buy everybody's things. I gave her money for my stuff, of course, but I wished I could have gone with her, to get out of Grimmauld Place.

The Order kept calling me in to See for them, and I was getting sick and tired of it.

"Here, this belonged to Antonin Dolohov." Kingsley Shacklebolt said.

I grabbed the ring that he held out and closed my eyes, concentrating.

When I See, it's something very hard to explain to someone who cannot See. It's like explaining to a blind man what the color orange looks like.

I held the ring in my hand, and I sort of… felt the essence of it, and inside that, was an imprint of the essence (or soul, if you prefer) of its owner. I grabbed onto that, pulled it out, and then it was a part of me. With that done, I mentally latched onto the soul of the person, and then it was like I was in their head.

It sounds weird and difficult when I try to explain it, I know.

I sound pretty crazy, I guess.

But however strange it sounded, it worked.

I could see a flash of a forest, the trees close together and dark, and a small city that sat just on its edge. A man, Dolohov, I guessed, was knocking on a door, and when it opened, he yelled something, pointing his wand at the older man who had answered the door. Then the vision was gone.

I told the Order what I had seen, then they had me do the same thing with a small bag of other objects they had.

I didn't see how what I did helped, but they insisted that even those tiny glimpses allowed them to get a bigger picture or something about what the Death Eaters were up to.

They finally pushed me out of the kitchen, closing and locking the door.

I went up to bed, but I could not sleep.

Seeing for the Order made me restless, edgy.

I don't know why it did, but I hated it. I could never manage to fall asleep until hours after I saw the visions, and by then it was late, and I would wake up the next morning still tired.

But tomorrow, I would be going back to Hogwarts, and there, I was happy.


	3. Chapter 3

Another chapter, (I'm trying to get these posted up regularly).

Still only one review, though… so please, take a minute or two and review.

It means a lot to me.

Thanks

XX

=+=Fred=+=

"Why do people call night 'after-dark' when it's really after light?" Eva asked.

"What?" George and I both looked over at her. She had that look on her face again, the one that said she had been pondering it the whole walk across the crowded train station.

Eva did that sometimes. She would just pop out a random question like that, and George and I would just stare at her and wonder exactly why she was so preoccupied by it.

But her questions always made sense, if you thought about it.

"I don't know…" I said, grabbing Eva's trunk and lifting it onto the train.

"Hmm. Oh, there's Lee." she said, dismissing the matter. "Hi, Lee!" Eva yelled across the crowd of people saying goodbye to their children and waving at them as they boarded the Hogwarts Express.

I glanced around the train station and saw a smarmy-looking blond bloke strolling over. My mood immediately went sour.

I had hoped that over the summer, Warren would perhaps get mauled by a wild animal, or hit by a bus.

Alas, it seemed that I was out of luck.

"Does it really matter why it's called after-dark?" Warren said as he came to a stop behind Eva.

"Warren!" Eva said happily, turning around and hugging the git.

He kissed her lightly, and I turned away.

"I'll save you a seat, okay?" I said to Eva, wanting to get away from the couple.

I jumped into the Hogwarts Express without waiting for an answer. George had already gotten onto the train, and I walked through the crowded aisles, searching for him.

My thoughts were, of course, on Warren and Eva.

He was a complete ass. I knew it, George knew it, even Lee knew it. But Eva, bless her naïve little heart, remained in ignorance about the depths of his jerkitude.

Wonderful Ravenclaw Warren, with his 'beautiful blond curls', and that 'adorable dimple in his cheeks', had been with Eva since last year. He had asked her out to the Yule Ball, nearly as soon as it was announced that there would be one. I didn't tell Eva that I had been planning to ask her. And judging by the huge grin plastered on her face as she told me about Warren, there was no chance she would dump him and go with me instead. I had ended up going with Angelina, and it had been alright. But every time Eva and Warren danced near us, I swung Angelina around to the opposite side of the dance floor. It was just a little too painful to see Eva gazing up at Warren with those beautiful gray-blue eyes of hers.

I kept wishing she would look at me that way, just once.

I wasn't only jealous of Warren, though. That wasn't why I disliked him so much. He just had this whole attitude about him, this air of superiority and contempt. Plus, he was a prefect. The guy was nearly as uptight and priggish as Percy. And that's saying quite a bit.

~*~Eva~*~

I hugged Warren. "How was your summer? Why didn't you write more often? " I asked.

"I moved. Things were hectic. I'm sorry." Warren said with a placed a hand on my back and guided me onto the train.

"Look, I don't want to sit with your friends. How about you sit with mine?" Warren said as we made our way through the aisle. Most of the compartments were full already, students greeting their friends and chattering about their summers.

"But I always sit with Fred and George." I said.

"Exactly."

"Please, just sit with us." I gave him my most pleading face, and he sighed reluctantly. "You know I can't say no to you, Eva. But you owe me."

We found the compartment where Fred and George sat, along with my other friends. Katie and Angelina grinned at me, and Alicia waved at us.

"Hey Warren. Eva."

Warren smiled and sat down beside Alicia, patting the seat on his other side.

"Anyway," said Lee, turning back to Fred and George after giving me a small smile. "My Mum went ballistic when she saw him. She grounded me for three weeks. Made me trim the hedges at least five times. Without magic. Do you know how hard that is?"

"Well, we told you to wait until she was gone to try it out." said George.

"Can't say we didn't warn you." Fred said with a nod.

The train began to move, and I was back on my way to another year at Hogwarts.

"Have you read all the stories the Prophet is putting out about Harry?" asked Katie, as the train whizzed by blurred fields."The ones where they pass him off as a crackpot liar? Yeah." I felt bad for Harry. I had seen his face after he had gotten out of the maze, and I had seen the way he had clutched at Cedric Diggory's dead body.

Something bad had happened in that maze, and if Harry said that Voldemort had returned, then I believed him.

Conversation turned to Harry, Dumbledore, and whether Voldemort was actually back or not.

Warren doesn't like talking about him. Voldemort, I mean. His father was killed by Death Eaters in the first Wizarding war. His poor mother had committed suicide soon after, and then he had to go live with his grandparents.

He had been talking animatedly to Alicia, but now he stood, looking uncomfortable.

"I'm gonna go see how everybody else is doing. See you later." he said, without looking back at me as he stepped out of the compartment.I glanced over at Alicia, who looked slightly disappointed. I was going to start up a conversation with her, but Fred dropped down between us, smiling and wrapping an arm around both Alicia and I.

"Sweets, anyone?" came the cheerful voice of the trolley lady.

We spent the rest of the train ride stuffing our faces with junk food.

It was a tradition of ours.

"Who's the pink toad lady?" muttered George as we entered the Great Hall.

I looked up the Head Table, and indeed, there was a toad-faced woman wearing flowery pink clothes.

"Must be the new Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher." I said.

She didn't look like she could defend against anything, let alone the dark arts.

She had to be about the size of a 13 year old kid, albeit a rather fat one, and her hair was tightly curled under a small pink hat.

We were eventually allowed to eat, after a very long speech from the new woman, whose name was Umbridge.

Fred and George started bewitching food to fly around the Great Hall and smack people, and I couldn't resist the fun.

"Fred, stop that." I whispered, after ramming a slice of ham into the side of a Hufflepuff girls shocked face. Fred had been smacking all his food into Warren, and now there were little globs of stew and mashed potatoes on the back of his robes. Warren hadn't noticed, although I knew he would be in for an unpleasant surprise later.

Fred sighed, then made a pea hit me between the eyes.

Jerk.

We had to stop soon after that, as Snape started glaring at us from the Head Table.

Getting detentions on the first night back at Hogwarts did not seem a good way to start the term.

Advanced Potions. Defense Against The Dark Arts. Herbology. Astronomy. Transfiguration. Charms. Divination.

Those were my classes for my final year here.

I was dreading the Herbology most of all, actually.

I've always been incredibly bad at it.

During the first year I was here, we studied mandrakes. Horrible, screeching things, those were. I managed to somehow neglect mine until Professor Sprout finally snatched my pot away, murmuring words of comfort to the thin, sick looking mandrake in the pot.

And last year I was almost killed by a plant. We were in the most dangerous greenhouse, and Sprout had already warned us several times to be very careful in there. I should have just skipped that class, but stupid me, I went. I was trying to wrangle a long, green tentacle from some spiky plant. We were supposed to be trying to extract a kind of nearly harmless venom from the spikes. I managed to trip over the tentacle, and I went sprawling into this large, pinkish orange, slimy plant. It started to close on me, and part of it wrapped around my head so I couldn't call for someone to help me. It stunk horribly, and it was sticky. I couldn't even breath, so I guess I passed out. By the time somebody realized that I wasn't by my assigned plant, I had been all but enveloped by the plant. Only my feet stuck out, George told me later. Sprout had freed me from the plant, revived me, and then sent me to the hospital wing, because the slime from the plant was like a kind of acid, and my skin was blistery and some of my hair had begun to fall out.

Fun times in Herbology.

I don't even know how I managed to pass each year. I do fine on the written tests, but when it comes to practical stuff… epic fail.

Potions is actually my best class.

I'm fairly talented at the whole thing, and most of the time, Snape doesn't openly show his contempt for me and my Gryffindor status.

(Please note that I said most of the time.)

So, coming from Snape, that's practically a hug and a pat on the back.

Taking Divination was mostly my mum's idea.

She thinks that I should learn the whole art of tea leaves and dream interpretation, since I'm a Seer.

I think it's a bit ridiculous, but I take the class anyway.

Trelawney seems like an old fraud, but I know she's a real Seer.

Trelawney has that same aura about her that my mum does. Seers can usually recognize other Seers, my mum says.

So maybe Trelawney isn't completely crazy, like most of the other students seem to believe.

Although I do think she should begin making her death predictions in moderation.

None of them have come true, after all. The death prediction for my year was for Leanne, one of Katie's friends. Leanne spent a week or two jumping at every sudden noise, looking over her shoulder for some dark danger.

But Leanne is still breathing to this very day, so I still can't put too much stock into Trelawney's words.

[George]

Second week back at Hogwarts, and Fred and I had already begun wracking up the detentions and losing points for our house.

Ah, mum would be so proud.

We were certainly proud of ourselves, all the way up until our very first detention with Umbridge.

She smiled at us the whole time, after giving us these nasty quills that wrote in our own blood. I could tell Fred wanted to curse the old hag, but I shook my head. Even I knew that doing anything to her right now would only make things a thousand times worse.

So we left her office quietly after two hours. But once we began heading back up to the common room, both of us gingerly inspecting the words now etched on our hands, Fred began to rant and rave about Umbridge. I agreed heartily, and we took our minds off the pain by imagining up various schemes to test out on the miserable woman.

By the time we stepped through the portrait hole, the blood had stopped oozing, and now it was just dried and crusted all over my hand. It was throbbing, but it didn't hurt near as much as it had in her office. That was a relief.

Fred echoed my thoughts.

"It's not so bad now. Funny how she thinks a few cuts will stop the Weasley twins."

The common room was still fairly crowded, and Eva and Lee were sitting at a table, playing a game of Wizard's Chess. They both looked over at us when we entered the common room, and Eva's eyes went directly to our bloody hands.

She jumped up from her seat and hurried across the room. I saw Fred smoothing his hair down with his non-injured hand, and I barely suppressed a smirk. He had it bad for our little Eva.

She picked up my hand first, biting her lip and frowning at the bloody words on my skin."What happened?" Eva demanded as she dropped my hand and grabbed Fred's.

"Umbridge gave us detention." said Fred.

"Made us write lines into our hands with a couple of weird quills." I said.

Eva looked disgusted. "That twisted woman… does it hurt terribly?" She directed her question at Fred.

He seemed torn between wanting to seem tough and strong to Eva, and wanting to make her pity him and possibly clean up his wound, which would then require her to touch his hand quite a bit.

Lee was standing beside Eva, having abandoned the game of chess, and now he and I exchanged an amused glance.

Fred decided to go with the tough act.

"It's barely more than a scratch." he said.

Eva just shook her head. "Don't be ridiculous. You two are covered in blood."

It was an exaggeration, though not by much.

Eva then insisted upon dragging the two of us to the bathrooms, where she cleaned the blood off our hands and put on bandages which she conjured with a casual wave of her wand.

I picked at my bandage from my uncomfortable perch on the edge of the sink. Eva had pulled her hair back into a ponytail, and she was gently scrubbing dried blood off of Fred's hand. Fred was acting like a total idiot. A little grin was forming on his face, and I could just read his thoughts. 'She's holding my hand, she's holding my hand!'

But then his smile was replaced with a wince as Eva ran a rag over the words etched into his skin.

Despite the considerable pain, I knew he was enjoying her attentions.

While she worked, Eva began a tirade of insults against Umbridge. It certainly took my mind off the dull throbbing of my bandaged hand.

"And not only does she look like the love-child of a banshee and a troll, she has the personality to match! And surely she's fairly unintelligent, because it's obvious that you two will only cause even more trouble for her now that she's given you these detentions…"

I was busy ridding myself of the repulsive image of a banshee and troll snogging, so I didn't quite catch the rest of her rant as we returned to the common room.

She was still fuming as she stomped up to her bed, muttering under her breath about Umbridge.

"It's nice she got so angry on our behalf." I said to Fred, who was grinning as he watched Eva retreat up the girls staircase.

"Yes…" he said, turning to me. "I particularly enjoyed the comment about Umbridge and her relationship with the ghoul that lives in our attic back home."

That left me with even more disturbing mental images to rid myself of, but I could not help but laugh.


	4. Chapter 4

Thanks so much to everybody who reviewed! I have this stupid grin on my face because of you guys.

So here's another chapter.

/^/Warren/^/

I woke up Friday morning with a miserable feeling inside me.

I knew the date, even without looking at the calendar pinned beside my bed to keep track of assignments and club meetings.

October fourteenth.

The day my father was murdered by a Death Eater called Rosier, sixteen years ago. I wasn't even out of diapers when it happened. I hardly remembered my dad, but I still missed him with this dull, hollow ache. I missed what could have been, what should have been.

My mother never was the same after that day. So really, October fourteenth was also the day she began to die.

I carefully selected clothes, then put them on, trying to focus on anything but my parents. I had learned long ago that thinking about it made it worse.

So I stood in front of the mirror and combed my hair meticulously, brushed my teeth twice, to make sure I had gotten them clean, then headed down to an early breakfast.

While I walked down, I went over today's schedule in my head. Anything to keep my mind busy.

Transfiguration first, where Professor McGonagall would be checking whether we had practiced changing a cat into a book. I had that spell down, and my book no longer had furry pages.

Then double Potions with Hufflepuff. Professor Snape would likely be assigning us an essay, he had hinted yesterday that one was coming up…

Eva met me just outside the Great Hall. She held out her hand, and I took it gratefully.

"How are you?" she said, looking sideways at me as we entered the hall.

She obviously knew what day this was, and knew I would probably not be feeling great.

I was suddenly very glad that she was my girlfriend.

I squeezed her hand tighter, but I didn't answer her question. She sat at the Ravenclaw table with me, and watched as I loaded pancakes onto my plate.

I knew it would make me sick afterward, because there was no way that I could eat fifteen pancakes all by myself without any adverse effects. I ate them anyway.

When I'm feeling bad, I guess I just overeat. Pancakes are my vice, my comfort food. My grandma always makes them for me when I'm home for the summer.

And it's times like this when I desperately wish I was home.

Eva decided to cheer me up, so she started telling me about an incident in Herbology where she had somehow ended up setting part of a greenhouse on fire.

"By the time everybody realized what was happening," she said, "the greenhouse was filling with smoke, and we all had to evacuate while Sprout extinguished the flames."

Eva had a bright smile on her face, and I knew she was trying to pull me out of my gloomy mood.

I decided to play along, so I forced out a weak smile. "Did you get detention?"

Eva shook her head. "Couldn't prove it was me. Sprout suspected I had done it, of course. I'm the cause of half the accidents in Herbology."

I could definitely believe that. Eva was hopeless in that class.

She leaned closer to me and kissed me. That was a very pleasant distraction for a few moments, and this time I didn't even have to fake enthusiasm.

Eva pulled away, though, and stood up from the bench.

"I'm sorry to just run off like this, but I have to go to Dumbledore's office before my first class. I'll see you later, though." she said.

"Wait. Why are you going to his office?"

Eva glanced around, then sat back down beside me.

"You know about the Order, right?" she whispered, so that anyone who happened to pass by didn't overhear.

I nodded. My family had been a part of it during the last Wizarding war.

"Well, my parents are having me use my Seeing to help keep an eye on the Death Eaters."

I didn't say anything at first. I wasn't sure what to say, actually.

I knew that I didn't want Eva working with the Order. It's not that I didn't believe they had a good goal in mind, but… it was dangerous.

My dead parents were proof of that.

People who fight in the Order, people who help the Order, are risking their lives. They could be hurt. They could be killed, easily.

By assisting the Order, Eva could very well be signing her own death warrant, so to speak.

"Warren?" Eva said. Her face was near mine, and she looked worried. "You okay?"

"Eva, I don't think you should be getting involved with the Order." I said.

She just looked at me, then stood up again. "I don't really have a choice." Eva said quietly. She turned around and left the hall as I looked down at my empty plate.

The momentary lift in my spirits was gone, and now I felt even worse than before.

I couldn't help but think that what Eva was doing was going to get her killed.

Things surely couldn't end well.

~*~Eva~*~

The weeks passed fairly quickly, and the warm weather began to slowly disappear, replaced by chilly mornings and cold wind.

One Saturday turned off warm, though, so of course nearly the whole school was outside, enjoying the sunshine.

Fred, George, and I were all laying on the grass, staring up at the sky.

Or, rather, I was watching the sky, pointing out the occasional interestingly shaped cloud. Fred was laying beside me on his stomach, watching me with his head resting in his hands. George was sending insects flying around us.

"Oh, look. That one's a rabbit, but he only has one and a half ears." A beetle flew above me and looped around Fred's head.

Fred made a sort of mumbling noise that could have been a yes.

"And that one's a hippogriff ballerina. See the beak, and the tutu?"

Suddenly Fred rolled over onto his back and scooted up against me, a slight smile on his face.

"Where?"

I pointed, but he shook his head. "I don't see it."

George sent another three beetles flying over us, followed by a rather large ant.

I pointed again. "There, beside the cloud that looks like a house with wings."

"You're a nutter."

I grabbed his hand and guided it so that he was pointing at the hippogriff ballerina.

He looked up the sky for a long moment, then turned his head to face mine.

"I see it." he smiled.

"Here comes Warren." said George, making his flying beetles do figure eights in the air.

I dropped Fred's hand and sat up. "Hi Warren!" I called as he walked toward me.

Fred got to his feet, brushing off his clothes. "I'll see you later, Eva."

"Don't you want to stay out here?"He shook his head. "I'm just gonna… go to the kitchens and grab something to eat. You want anything?""Bacon sandwich?"

A bacon sandwich has got to be one of the most amazing creations in the world (In my humble opinion) , although nobody makes them better than Mrs. Weasley.

"I should have guessed." Fred smiled, then turned and walked back to the castle, hands in his pockets, as Warren sat down beside me in the spot Fred had vacated.

"I wish you wouldn't let him lay beside you like that, or grab your hand." he said with a frown.

"Why? Fred's my best friend." I looked over at George, who had stopped enchanting bugs. "Along with you, of course, Georgie."

"I'm touched." He said, pretending to wipe away tears.

"Look, I don't like it, okay? So please don't do it anymore."

"So…I can't lay beside my friend and look at clouds. Why exactly is that?" I crossed my arms and put on my stubborn face.

"Because you should spend more time with me. You're with him and George nearly all the time." Warren grabbed my hands and made me uncross my arms and look at him.

"That is not true." I said, even though I knew it was. "You can't monitor what I do with my time, anyway." "I can, when you spend that time pressed up against some guy." Warren's face was slowly turning whiter, which I knew it did when he got angry."I wasn't 'pressed up' against him, I was laying beside him. And he's not just some guy, he's one of my best friends." I said, trying to keep my patience. I know Warren was only bothering me about it because he cared for me, but it was still annoying as stood up and cleared his throat. "I should go with Fred." he said uncomfortably.

"I'll be up there later." I said, not looking at Warren.

George walked away, breaking into a run and catching up with Fred. He said something to Fred, who looked back at Warren and I, still sitting on the grass.

"See, there you go, staring at him again." said Warren angrily.

I ran my fingers back through my hair and sighed. "I was watching George catch up to Fred. I wasn't staring."

We were both silent for a few moments, then I said, "So why did you come out here?"

"I was looking for you. Thought that I'd like to spend some time with you, but I can see that you were perfectly happy without me.""You are impossible, Warren." I said as I stood up. "Look, I have a headache. I'm going inside, okay? I'll see you tomorrow."

I didn't really have a headache, of course. But I knew that if I stayed out here with him, then I'd probably end up saying something I'd regret.

"Have a nice night." His voice was cold and indifferent. Great. I'd made him mad.

But he'd get over it soon, and things would be back to normal between us before long.

One thing that Warren couldn't do was hold a grudge against me, and we both knew it.

Sure enough, he caught me before I had gotten back into the castle.

"I'm sorry." he said, grabbing my hand. "I just get protective when it comes to you."I gave him a hug and smiled. "I know. But you don't have anything to worry about. Fred and I, we're just friends."

Fred and George were in the common room when I came in later, and they were cheerfully taking orders from a couple of third-years.

"And if you buy three boxes of Nosebleed Nougats, you get a free box of Puking Pastilles." George was saying.

I was struck by a sudden impulse. I waited until they had finished up, then I approached them.

"Who wants to go for a swim?" I said with a grin.

"Come again?" said Fred.

"A swim. That's when you go into water and splash around, for recreation. It's especially popular during the summertime." I said. "Need me to explain further?""You know it's not summertime, though. It's October. And it'll be dark soon." George pointed out.

"All the more reason to hurry up and go now." I smiled at them both. "Please?"

Fred nodded, and George followed us out of the portrait hole and down to the lake.

Most of the people had headed back inside, as the sun was dipping lower in the sky and the temperature was steadily growing colder.

We stood at the edge of the lake.

"Who wants to jump in first?" I said, staring down at the black water of the lake. I began pulling off my robe. I was wearing a skirt, but I took off my shoes and the socks that I wore. Jumping in with the robes and shoes on would probably drown me. And socks are so itchy when they get wet.

Fred and George looked at each other, and simultaneously raised their wands. My eyes widened. "Wait, no!" I barely had time to scream before I was sent flying into the air, then back down into the freezing water with a loud splash.

I heard them laughing as I surfaced, spluttering and coughing. "I hate you two so much right now." I should have expected this, though. What was I thinking when I invited them?

Then George pushed Fred into the water, but Fred managed to grab onto his leg as he went in, and they both fell into the water.

I swam over and tried to dunk them both, but I was only relatively successful. "Uh-oh, George. Better be careful. She's trying to drown you." said Fred with a laugh as I wrapped my arms around George's head and tried to pull him under. George dipped a little lower in the cold water, but then he just laughed at me.

"Nice try."I screamed suddenly, feeling something brush along my skin. I scrambled up onto both of their shoulders somehow. I don't even know how I did it, but my head and upper body were clinging onto George, and I had sort of gripped onto Fred's head with my legs. Barely any of me was touching the water, actually.

I had heard the stories of the giant squid in the lake, and I knew that merpeople with spears, and tons of grindylow lived in the lake, and who knew what else?

There was no way _I was going to be dragged under or eaten alive by some tentacled creature."What is it?" George asked, slightly tried to say something, but his voice came out muffled, as his face was pressed against my legs._

_They were both paddling frantically, trying to stay afloat with me clinging onto them._

"_Something brushed my leg." I gasped. "I think it was the giant squid. Get me out of the lake. Now!"_

_Fred finally managed to get my lower body off of him and I fell into the water again._

_George seemed to be trying hard not to laugh at me. I glared at him as Fred dove under the water, then resurfaced only moments later._

"_Look, George. I caught a giant squid." He said, holding out a long thin piece of some slimy plant._

_George burst out laughing, and Fred joined in. _

_I should have guessed. I mean, if the giant squid attacked swimmers, then Dumbledore would make it so that we couldn't get to the lake._

_I eventually joined in the twins laughter at my own expense, after splashing them in the face for teasing me and we soon paddled for the shore, all three of us shivering slightly. It was nearly dark now, and the warmth from earlier today was gone._

_I wrapped myself in my robe, and we hurried back to the castle, eager to get into the warm common room and sit in front of the fire that was no doubt burning in the grate right now._

"_Did you get my bacon sandwich?" I asked Fred as we stepped into the castle._

"_Oh… no. I didn't go to the kitchens after all." _

_I nodded and shivered again, trying to pull my robe tighter around me. My shoes made squishy squeaking noises as we walked up the stairs, and all three of us were leaving trails of water as we walked._

"_I liked your underwear." Fred said as he put his robe on my shoulders and pulled me up against him. "I've always thought black was very classy."_

_My face heated up, and I knew that I was blushing. George snorted._

"_If you'd like, you can borrow a pair sometime. I think I have some red lacy ones that would look absolutely gorgeous on you." I didn't actually have any red lacy underwear, but he didn't need to know that._

"_Well, I think I'd have to see them, first. So if you could bring them to my dorm, and maybe try them on for me, that'd be great." Fred was grinning._

"_In your dreams, Fred Weasley." _

"_In my dreams… you got that part right, at least."_

"_Lecher."_

"_Well, it was kind of hard to not see up your skirt. I mean, you had your butt curved right near my face. Where else was I supposed to look?" He didn't even look a bit apologetic._

"_Nice, Fred." said George, a wide grin on his face._

"_You're both pigs. And George, I had thought better of you.""I'm just jealous. All I had was my face clawed. Wait… no, I remember having certain parts of your anatomy shoved up against the side of my face."My face had to be flaming red by now. The two idiots were laughing and sniggering at me._

"_Okay. Yeah. Next time I want to go do something with you two, remind me not to."_


	5. Chapter 5

A HUGE thanks to everybody who has read and reviewed, or put me on their story alert thing, or put me on their favorite author or favorite story list.

You are all the pinnacle of awesomeness. Seriously, you're all great.

So here's Chapter Five!

Also…Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

XX

/^/Warren/^/

"Leighton."

I tore my eyes away from the Gryffindor table, where one of the Weasley twins had an arm slung around Eva's shoulders. Martin was giving me a strange look.

"What?" I said.

"We've been trying to get your attention, mate." Anthony said from across the table.

"Oh… sorry."

"What's got you distracted?" Martin asked, shoving a spoonful of shepherd's pie into his mouth. I looked back at the Gryffindor table. I was fairly sure it was Fred that had his arm around Eva. He was always the one right up close to her when I saw the three together.

I glanced back at Martin and Anthony again, and I wondered if I should tell them. We were guys, and guys don't generally do personal conversations. At least, I didn't.

"What do you two think about Fred Weasley?" I said slowly.

Anne, who was sitting beside Anthony, looked up when I said his name.

"Fred Weasley?" She said, pushing back a strand of blond hair. "He's cute." She looked around at our faces. "And him and George are pretty funny."

I grimaced and looked again to where Eva sat. She was laughing at something, and I could see both Fred and George grinning widely. Now Anne, Martin, and Anthony had turned around to see what I was looking at.

"Oh…" Anne said. "They're actually average-looking, and er…well, I might have been exaggerating when I said they were funny… It gets old after a bit, I'm sure.""Yeah. I don't think they ever get serious about anything." Martin pitched in.

I ignored their futile attempts at reassuring me that the Weasley twins were probably annoying, and definitely unattractive. Eva obviously didn't think they were, and she was the one whose opinion of them I worried about. She and the twins got up and left the hall. Fred had finally removed his arm from Eva's shoulders.

I was left staring down at my half-eaten dinner, and I realized that I was jealous of Fred Weasley.

Which was extremely ridiculous, of course. I was Eva's boyfriend, and despite what he felt for her, it was me that she chose to go out with. I was the one who called her mine, and I was the one allowed to kiss her. And that was something that Fred would never be able to do.

But still, I worried.

Not just about Eva and Fred. The Weasleys were very involved with the Order. Being around them all the time certainly wouldn't convince Eva to quit working with the Order. In fact, being around them was likely only going to strengthen her resolve to help.

The way I saw it, by continuing to associate with Fred and George, and all the rest of that bunch, she was endangering herself even further.

The way I saw it, her friendship with them was helping to kill her.

~*~Eva~*~

"Oi! Eva!" yelled Fred from across the common room. I glanced up from the essay I was writing on Troll Oppression.

He waved me over to where he and George sat.

"I have a very important question to ask you." he said once I had joined them."Very important?"

"Yeah, it's practically life-or-death. Right, George?"

George nodded solemnly. "It is of the utmost importance."

"That does sound awfully important." I said seriously.

"Exactly. So listen up."

"Should I take notes?" I asked.

"Probably, but there's no time!" He said with a smile. "Would you, Eva, do me the honor of holding the puke bucket while George and I sell our Puking Pastilles?"

Oh, what the hell. It's not like I was making much progress on the essay anyway.

I placed my hand over my heart. "Fred, George… I would _love_ to hold your puke bucket."

They grinned. "Excellent." said George.

"Because Lee wasn't looking forward to it." Fred said as he returned to the table and picked up a handful or purple and orange chews.

"Ready, George?"

"Ready, Fred."

Fred cleared his throat. "Gather 'round, everybody, and prepare to feast your eyes upon the latest wonder of the Wizarding world."

A crowd slowly gathered, eying the twins curiously.

"We give you… Puking Pastilles, an ingenious invention by us, the one and only Weasley Twins." George said grandly, showing the sweets to the crowd.

"Take the purple half of a chew, and you begin throwing up immediately. Well, a professor can't teach with you vomiting all over everything, now can they?" Fred said, with a grand waving of his arms."So they send you out of class, and once out, you take the orange half, which stops the vomiting." George continued. "And voila! You've just secured a free day to spend however you wish . Don't believe that they work? Well then, allow us to demonstrate."

"Might I introduce our lovely assistant, Miss Evanna Asher." Fred announced, waving me forward. "She has agreed to assist us this evening. Let's all give Eva a round of applause before we begin." The students in the crowd clapped, and I grinned and took a bow.

"Now, watch as George takes the purple half of the sweet." Fred said.

Everyone's eyes were fixed on George as he stepped in front of me and took the Puking Pastille.

There was silence for one moment, two, three, then George looked suddenly queasy, and he leaned forward and vomited into the bucket. I held it as far away from me as I could, my face screwed up in disgust as he continued to vomit. The crowd began applauding again, laughing and nudging their friends.

"Now watch as he takes the orange half, and the puking stops!" announced Fred loudly over the crowd.

George managed to swallow the candy in between a round of puking, and he wiped his mouth off on a rag that Fred held out.

Everybody in the common room watched him, waiting for him to spin back to the bucket and continue throwing up, but instead he grinned. "It works perfectly, everybody!"The crowd cried for another demonstration, and this time it was Fred's turn.

I sat with them as Fred counted the orders for Puking Pastilles later that night.

"We made a ton of money."

"Excellent." George said, leaning back in his armchair.

"But we couldn't have done it without your skilled handling of that puke bucket." said Fred, grinning over at me.

"Right." I said, raising my eyebrows. "You couldn't have sat it in the floor, after all."

"Of course not. That would be tacky." Fred said.

"Obviously." George said. He shook his head in disgust.

"Very tacky." I agreed.

Somebody tapped on my shoulder. I looked around to see a small girl standing there.

"Dumbledore wants to see you in his office." she said.

I said goodbye to the twins and left the common room, walking slowly to Dumbledore's office. Seeing seemed useless, pointless. How would knowing that a Death Eater was walking through an alleyway help the Order? Dumbledore's office was empty except for Dumbledore himself.

"Nobody from the Order came?" I asked as I sat down in a chair across from him.

"Not tonight. This evening, you will be Seeing someone significantly more important than the average Death Eater."

Dumbledore handed me a small black book, but it looked more like garbage than something somebody owned. The cover was twisted and mangled, and there was a huge hole right through the center. The pages looked like they had been burned in acid or something.

"Now, miss Asher, this diary belonged to none other than Lord Voldemort himself." Dumbledore said.

I looked up at him in surprise. How had he managed to acquire something like that? I mean, I doubt that old Voldy just left his things lying around. And …what would Voldemort write in a diary in the first place? Ah, life's unanswerable questions, I thought wryly.

"This diary has been owned by three other individuals since Voldemort had it last," Dumbledore said, "but I suspect that you will still be able to use it in Seeing because of special properties bestowed upon it by Voldemort himself."

I doubted it, honestly, but I still concentrated on the diary. Imagine my surprise when I was swept along and found myself staring at a man.

No, man wasn't the correct word. This person seemed inhuman, his features twisted and snakelike. He didn't even have a freaking nose, for crying out loud. His skin was milky pale, and his fingers, which tapped a rhythm on a wooden table, were long and elegant.

So… this was Lord Voldemort.

He wasn't doing anything particularly evil at the moment. It was a bit anti-climactic, to be honest. (Not that I'm complaining or anything.) My overactive imagination had conjured up images of a scarred, tattooed man eating children and kicking puppies.

But then he happened to look in my direction, and I got a good look at his eyes. They were slitted and red, and then I understood very well why everybody was so terrified of him.

There was nothing in his eyes. They were cold, dead, emotionless. No anger, no contempt.

Empty.

They were the eyes of something less and somehow more than human.

I was grateful when I slipped out of the vision.

Dumbledore didn't even need a confirmation that I had indeed been able to See Voldemort, and it seemed that he had been right after all. At least he didn't feel need to say 'I told you so', like I would have done in his place.

Dumbledore simply nodded, then stood up from his desk.

"You need not tell me what Voldemort was doing, though I am sure the Order will be eager to use your new connection with him the next time a member visits." He said. "Now, I believe I may have interrupted you in your schoolwork. Have a nice evening, Miss Asher."

=+=Fred=+=

George and I got down to breakfast a bit late. We had to take a small trip to the dungeon corridors and drop some Dungbombs off. Some Slytherins would be in for an unpleasant surprise the next time they passed through the area.

I looked up and down the Gryffindor table for Eva, but she wasn't there yet. "Eva must have slept in." I commented to George as we sat down. George looked around the hall as I piled a bunch of slices of toast on my plate.

He shook his head. "Actually, she's sitting with Warren."

My mood immediately went sour. I looked toward the Ravenclaw table, and sure enough, Eva was there beside Warren. I saw him lifting up a forkful of some food, and letting Eva eat it.

I grimaced and turned back around to George. "Does he think she's incapable of feeding herself?" I said.

"You've got to forget her, mate." George said.

I dropped the piece of toast I had just slathered with butter. "Why? They can't possibly last much longer. Soon she'll realize he's an arse, and she'll break up with him."

George snorted. "And then she'll jump into your arms and shower you with kisses, right? She'll tell you she loved you all along, and you two will ride off into the sunset on a broom and live happily after after?"

I shrugged. "Actually, Eva doesn't like heights. We'd _walk_ off into the sunset. Holding hands."

That's right, Fred. Make a joke, pretend that you haven't imagined a similar scenario.

George saw through the act, though. He's good at that.

"You've been after Eva for too long." he said. "Just go out with another girl, and try to enjoy yourself with her, you miserable git.""And if I still don't get over Eva?""Then you sit down and tell her…everything. Even if she's with Warren when you do it, at least you'll know that she knows."

No, no, no, my heart was screaming."Okay." I said. "That's a bad idea." said Lee from beside George.

I jumped. "How long have you been there?"

"I sat down at the 'shower you with kisses' part." he said with a grin. "Anyway, don't do what George says. My aunt tried the same thing once, and it completely backfired. Nasty business, that. The police even had to get involved."

I pushed my plate away, no longer hungry. "So who do I ask?" I said, ignoring Lee.

Lee sighed, but George frowned as he looked around the great hall. "Hmm…" he said.

I wasn't so sure this whole thing would work. First of all, I didn't want to go out with some other girl. I wanted to go out with Eva.

But if I was being truthful with myself, George was right.

I'm rather pathetic. Mooning after a girl in love with somebody else.

Too afraid to say anything to her.

That wasn't me, you know? I'm _the _Fred Weasley. Brilliant inventor and trickster extraordinaire.

I was daring and fearless. Or at least…I was supposed to be.

"How about Angelina?" George said.

I thought about it, then shook my head. "Nah."

I had asked Angelina to the Yule Ball last year, and I doubted she would care to go out with me again.

I had messed things up when I spilt half a bowl of punch all over her as I waved at Eva.

And girls remember that sort of thing. Angelina still gave me a wide berth whenever I neared her with a drink in my hand. So… she was definitely out of the question.

"Leanne?" Lee suggested.

"No… her fascination with shoes is a bit annoying." George and Lee both rolled their eyes at me.

"You're an idiot." Lee said.

"I know."

"Well… how about Katie?" George said.

"No!" Lee blurted out.

We both looked at him. He grinned weakly. "Choose someone else."

George and I smirked at each other, but neither of us said anything.

"What about Alicia?" Lee said finally.

I was on the verge of saying no, but George met my eyes and nodded firmly.

I sighed. "Alright. Alicia it is."


	6. Chapter 6

Time for Chapter Six!

I kind of like this one,(except for the Hogsmeade part) so I hope you all don't think it's sucky.

A thousand thanks to each and every person who reviews or puts my story on any favorite list!

No. You know what? A _**million**_ thanks.

Oh, that's right. I went there.

P.S- Just in case somebody doesn't know what a jumper is, it's a sweater. I'm pretty sure most people know that or could figure it out, but I wanted to be sure that you know Fred isn't meaning a kind of dress. Enough rambling. On with the story.

~*~Eva~*~

Ron caught up with me as I headed out of the common room the morning of Quidditch tryouts.

"Hey, Eva, I need to talk to you." he said. I turned around and saw the broom that he was holding in his hands.

"You're trying out for Quidditch, Ron? That's great!" I said, grinning. Ron didn't look too pleased. Instead, he looked fairly sick, and a little embarrassed.

"Actually, I need to ask you for a favor." He stared down at his feet.

"And what would that be?"

"Can you… could you ask Fred and George to go easy on me?" He looked up at me. "I know they'll take the mickey out of me when I show up, and that's… that's just going to make me even more nervous. And I'm bloody well nervous enough already."

I smiled kindly at him. "Ron, if I thought they would listen to me, I would ask them to in a heartbeat. But I don't think they would."

He shook his head, shifting his grip on his broom. "No, they would. You and Mum are the only ones I know who can control them even a little. They would listen to you. Trust me."

I wasn't so sure, but I agreed to do as Ron asked, and I walked down to the Quidditch Pitch after breakfast. Instead of going to the stands, I met with Fred and George and the rest of the team.

"Morning." said George when he saw me approaching.

"Please tell me you brought us something to eat." said Fred. "Angelina dragged us down here before breakfast was served. I have no idea why, but…" he trailed off as I reached into my bag and pulled out two large napkins filled with bacon and toast. The twins took them eagerly.

"Eva, I love you." said George through a mouth of toast.

Fred made a mumbling noise that sounded like he either said 'yes' or 'arse'.

I smiled at them, then cleared my throat and said, "Look, I need you two to do something for me."

"And what would that be, dearest Eva?" said Fred, swallowing a bite of bacon.

"A shoulder massage?" suggested George.

"A Fainting Fancy to get you out of class?"

"A man to sweep you off your feet?"

"She already has one of those. Me." Fred winked dramatically at me.

"Yes, how could I forget?" George slapped himself on the forehead.

"No, no, none of those." I said, even though I thought all of their suggestions sounded very nice. "Look, Ron is trying out for Keeper." The twins looked at each other, then burst into laughter.

"See, he knew you'd do that. Please, guys, just take it easy on him." I struggled to be heard over them. They both straightened, still grinning.

"And why would we do that, pray tell?" said Fred.

"It is our jobs as his older brothers to mock him endlessly for things he does. To slack off, that would just be…"

"Inconsiderate."

"Lazy."

"Come on. Please?"

Fred looked thoughtful. "Well, you would owe each of us a favor in return, you understand."

"One that can be called in at any time, any place, under any circumstances. And it can be anything." continued George.

I wondered if Ron was really worth owing both of them a favor. The terms of the deal were pretty set. I had tried to back out of owing George a favor once, and the twins had somehow snuck worms into my shoes, a very unpleasant surprise when I had slipped my feet into them the next time.

There was no way I was ever going back on a promise with the twins around.

But still, I held out my hand. "Deal."

"Excellent." said George, shaking my hand.

"You understand that this contract is legal and binding, I hope." Fred grasped my hand and shook it too.

"Yes." I sighed.

"Good. Well, here come the young hopefuls. Oh, there's little Ronald. Doesn't he look so grown-up, George?"

"He's practically a man." said George.

"You two said you would go easy on the mocking." I said, frowning at them.

"We are." they said together.

"No you're not. The deals off then, if you two keep doing that."

Fred and George stepped away and muttered to each other. Fred kept glancing over. They finally returned back to me.

"We have decided that we would prefer to have you in our debt, so the terms of the agreement will be honored." said George in a formal, serious voice.

"Good. Now let's see if Ron is as good as his brothers at Quidditch." I said, grabbing their arms and pulling them to the bench.

"I doubt it." said Fred, putting his arm around my waist as we all sat down.

"We are the best there is." George said.

I smiled at them. "Without a doubt."

They ended up breaking the deal, of course, and Fred shrugged over at me as he and George teased Ron relentlessly throughout the tryouts. They kept blowing kisses at him, talking in loud, carrying voices about how their ickle Ronniekins was growing up so fast.

"Sorry. Couldn't resist." he said. "And honestly, did you expect us to do any different?"

=+=Fred=+=

"So, Alicia." I said, sitting down on the table where Alicia was doing homework.

"Yeah?" She didn't even look up at me. She furiously scratched out a line she had just written.

I leaned over and took the quill out of her hand. "I was thinking that you and I should..." I trailed off as Eva came through the portrait hole, her face pale. She collapsed into a chair in front of the fireplace.

"Here's your quill back." I said to Alicia as I stood up. "I'll ask you some other time."

I had been just about to ask Alicia out, but honestly, Eva didn't look so good. So Alicia would just have to wait.

"Are you okay?" I asked from behind the armchair Eva had just sat in. She leaned her head back against the chair and looked up at me.

Her eyes seemed hollow and large in her face, and her lips were pressed together.

"Yeah. I'm fine." she said quietly.

I leaned down and grabbed her hand. "You look sick. I can take you to the hospital wing."

"I'm fine." she protested as I pulled her to her feet. "I really don't want to go. I'm just tired from Seeing."

"Well then…" I looked out the window and down to the Quidditch pitch in the distance. "Have you ever flown on a broom? I don't remember ever seeing you on one, or even mentioning riding one."

"I'm afraid of heights, Fred. Of course I'm going to be flying around hundreds of feet in the air on a wooden stick." I ignored her sarcasm and began pulling her out of the common room. Eva had never been on a broom before. Well, I was going to fix that little problem. And besides, maybe some fresh air would be good for her. I wasn't sure why it would, but mum always said that when one of us was feeling under the weather.

"Where are we going?" she asked as we left the common room.

"To the Quidditch field. You need to ride a broom."

"I just told you, Fred. I'm afraid of heights." Despite her arguments, I continued to hold her hand and drag her through the halls.

"Curfew is in an hour. We'll be caught. And I'm tired. And hungry. It's cold out here. Plus, I have an essay to write."

I ignored her every protest.

"You'll love flying, Eva. I know you will." I said as we finally entered the Quidditch Pitch.

I (reluctantly) dropped her hand and performed a spell that lit up some of the field. It was still very dim, but at least we could see.

Eva stood shivering as I grabbed a broom left in one of the changing rooms where the teams met before a match. I guess I actually should have let her grab a jumper or something, but it was too late now. I mounted the broom and held my hand out toward her expectantly.

"Promise you won't fly too high?" Eva said, her voice coming out slightly shaky. "You have to swear you won't."

"I promise." I said, grinning. She put her hand in mine and I pulled her onto the broom.

"Just… hang on." I said. "I don't want you to fall off and break anything. It'd be hell trying to get you all the way back up to the hospital wing."

Eva scooted up close behind me and wrapped her arms around my chest. We rose into the air, but I didn't go very high, only about ten feet up. I hadn't even flown this low when I first got onto a broom.

"Hang on." I said again, then we sped forward.

We flew slower at first, but soon I pushed the broom as fast as it would go, and Eva was laughing breathlessly, holding on to me even tighter than before. It was cold, with the night air whipping past us, but Eva was very warm. I felt her rest her cheek against my back, then I heard her sigh. As she grew more at ease sitting on the broom, her death grip around my chest loosened. I was thankful I could finally breathe correctly, but then her hands slipped down around my stomach, and I found myself slowing the broom to a stop.

"What is it?" Eva asked quietly as we hovered there in the air.

I didn't know what to say, and I didn't even understand why I had stopped. Her arms were still wrapped around me. I think I was about to blurt out something incredibly embarrassing, but then I saw a small, faint light moving from the castle and heading to the Pitch.

"I think someone's coming down here." I said, grateful for the interruption.

"What time is it?" Eva asked.

I shrugged. "Sometime after curfew, I think."

"It didn't seem like were flying for that long." Eva said to me as I landed the broom and we dismounted.

"So you like flying after all?"

"I love it! As long as I stay close to the ground, of course."

"That's nothing. It's even better when you're so high in the air that you can barely make out people's faces, and the ground is so far below…" I glanced over at her as we walked off of the field. "But this was nice, too."

She smiled at me, her face barely visible in the dim light.

Actually, this had been _very_ nice, I thought.

~*~Eva~*~

We managed to avoid whoever it was going down to the Quidditch Pitch, and Fred and I snuck into the castle. The halls were dark and empty. It was far past curfew. We were tiptoeing up the steps when I heard what sounded like a thump.

"What was that sound?" I whispered.

"It's probably the giant squid again." Fred said.

"Shut up."I grabbed his hand and pulled him behind a tapestry.

"Someone's coming." I said.

We listened as footsteps went by us and continued down the hall. Fred was still holding my hand, and I could feel his palm starting to sweat.

"See, I wasn't imagining noises." I said as we stepped out from behind the tapestry and continued to Gryffindor tower.

"You know it's rude to say I told you so."

"Yes, you're one to talk about being rude." I said dryly.

"I'm not rude, I'm mischievous. George is the rude one."

"No, George is the nice one. He's a lot sweeter than you are."

Fred didn't answer at first, but when he did, his voice was quiet. "I can be sweet. Plenty of people think I'm sweet."

I snorted. "Yes, but they're all love struck girls who think you can do no wrong. They're opinions are biased."

Fred did have quite a few admirers. I had heard a group of fourth year girls giggling about the twins one night in the common room. 'Oh, they're so funny!' 'Oh, look at their nice Quidditch bodies!' Well, they didn't say exactly that, but that was the general idea. I had been strangely annoyed at the fourth years, actually. I kept thinking 'how dare they talk about my boys like that!' Sometimes I'm just as bad as a mother about being protective. I can't help it.

Fred seemed amused. "So…what do they say about me?"

"I heard a couple of them whispering about what it'd be like to rub your muscles. It was… slightly disturbing. Actually, it was very disturbing."

"What, you wouldn't like to feel them? You don't lay awake at night dreaming of my muscular, sculpted body?"

I smiled to myself. "No, I don't."

"That hurts, Eva. You must think I'm hideous." He let go of my hand and covered his face. "Don't look at me!"

"No…" I sighed. "Fred, I'm _not_ going to help boost your ego. So stop fishing for compliments."

Then I rolled my eyes at him, but of course he didn't notice, as he still had his face buried in his hands.

"Fred, come on. We have to get back to the common room." I grabbed his arm and pulled.

He didn't budge, even when I hugged him and said "Fred, I think you're very beautiful. Happy?"

Finally he looked down at me, uncovering his face. "I prefer the word handsome, or attractive. Beautiful is for girls."

I glanced around the hallway. Nobody was coming yet.

"Boys can be pretty." I said.

"How would you like it if I called you handsome?"

"Well, I would say 'thank you, Fred, for that wonderful compliment', and then I would run back to Gryffindor Tower before we were caught out of bed."

He ignored the last part. "So if I were to say… Eva, you know, your moustache makes you look very mature and dignified, then you wouldn't mind?"

I blinked at him as a smile grew on his face. My hand moved upward and touched my upper lip. He could have pulled out his wand and made a moustache grow on my face when I wasn't pay attention. He had done it before, he could do it again.

"Kidding. You're very pretty, Eva." Fred actually seemed sincere, to my surprise.

"And I guess that you're not beautiful…" I said as he waited expectantly.

I sighed. He was never going to let me live this down.

"You're actually fairly good-looking." I mumbled. "Can we go now?"

Fred grinned and we continued walking down the corridor, finally stopping in front of the portrait hole.

"So does this mean you're in love with me?" He fanned himself, batting his eyes. "Well, this is all a bit soon…. But I love you too. Let us kiss passionately now…my love."

I didn't dignify that with a response, of course.  
-

"You're going to Hogsmeade with us today." announced George when I stepped into the common room on a windy Saturday morning.

"And why would I do that?" I said, walking to the portrait hole.

"Because you can't resist the lure of our company?" said Fred, linking his arm with mine.

"Because of our scintillating conversation?" George linked arms on my other side.

"Because you want to join a club dedicated to learning what Umbridge _doesn't _want us to learn?" Lee said, following us all out as we walked arm in arm down to breakfast.

"You had me at 'lure of our company'" I said.

We were supposed to meet everybody at the Hogs Head, a disreputable little place on the outskirts of Hogsmeade. But of course, seeing as I was with Fred, George, and Lee, we had to stop at Zonko's first. By the time we left, their arms were stuffed with bags and packages of joke items. I knew that Hogwarts would be a dangerous place for the next week, with them testing out all their stuff on unsuspecting students. I made a mental note to be on my guard.

We passed Warren, who was walking with a couple of his friends. I waved at him and he joined us, kissing my forehead and taking hold of my hand.

"Where are you headed?" he asked.

"Sorry. That's confidential." Fred said.

"No, it's not." I said, frowning at Fred. The good mood had disappeared, and now he looked slightly put out. "We're going to meet some people about a club."

"We'll be at the Three Broomsticks, mate." said one of Warren's friends, a tall boy with curly brown hair whose name I vaguely remembered was Martin.

"I'll be along in a minute." Warren said, then turned back around to me.

"Oh. You're telling him about the club. Great." said Fred sarcastically.

"What kind of club?" Warren asked, after sending a frosty look toward Fred.

"Well…" I said. "We're going to learn what Umbridge doesn't teach us this year."

Warren frowned at me, then shook his head. "She won't like that."

"We know." Fred and George said from beside me. Warren glanced at the twins, but ignored them.

"Eva, you shouldn't be antagonizing Umbridge. She's close with the Minister, and… I think that angering her would be a bad idea the longer she stays here."

"Why do you say that?" I asked.

"Look at all the decrees Umbridge is passing." he said, staring earnestly at me. "She's giving herself more and more power. I doubt she'll stop until she's equal to Dumbledore."

I faintly recalled Umbridge making some big speech before the start of the term, and she kept mentioning how the Ministry was going to begin getting closer involved with Hogwarts. So did that mean Umbridge wanted to be the Headmaster or something? Dammit. Why didn't I pay more attention?

"We're going to miss the meeting." said George. I had nearly forgotten the twins were even there. "Unless you changed your mind, Eva, we should get going."

"Right…" I said. "I'm still joining the club, Warren."

I watched his face for any signs of anger, or at least annoyance, but there was only disappointment.

"Just...swear you'll be careful, okay? Don't get caught." he said.

I leaned up and kissed his cheek, then let Fred grab my hand and lead me down to the Hog's Head.

"I promise, Warren."

He nodded and turned down the street.

The Hogs Head was crowded with students by the time we got in there and sat down beside Alicia, Angelina, and Katie. Harry and his mates talked to us about their idea for a club that would meet and practice spells to prepare us for what was outside the castle. Their words, not mine. Finally Hermione passed around a paper for us to sign. George handed it to me, and I signed without hesitation. If I was going to join the Order and be more than a Seer, I wouldn't just need to know the theories of a spell.

The date for the first meeting wasn't set, because apparently they didn't have a place for us to practice yet.

"But when we find one, we'll get the word out." said Harry, and everybody left the bar, chattering and laughing.

Instead of returning with George, Lee and I back to the castle, Fred caught up with Alicia and grabbed her hand.

I turned to George. "Did I miss something?"

He shifted the Zonko's packages around in his arms and glanced towards Fred and Alicia.

"Oh. Yeah, Fred asked her out yesterday."

I stopped walking, and George and Lee were forced to wait for me.

"So… why didn't somebody tell me?" I demanded. "I could have given him pointers on how to ask her, I could have..."

"Er… I think he can manage to ask a girl out himself."

"Fine, but this is still important news!" I said. "Fred has a girlfriend. He never even told me he liked her. The sneaky little git."

"Why?" Lee asked. "Why do you care so much who Fred dates?"

"Because. He's my best friend." I said.

That was why I cared, right?

Of course.

Of course it was.


	7. Chapter 7

I thought I should go ahead and get this chapter put up, since I won't be able to get back on the internet until at least Sunday or Monday.

I am incredibly thankful to every single person who reviews!

Did you know that there is 1,440 minutes in a 24 hour day?

Please, take just a minute out of your day to review. You'll still have 1, 339 minutes to spend doing whatever you want, and you will make the remaining 1,339 minutes in my day even better!

XX

P.S.- Happy Holidays, everybody!

~*~Eva~*~

I dragged myself into the common room after another visit to Dumbledore's office, and sat beside Fred and George on the sofa, massaging my temples. They were sitting really strange, nearly holding their bottoms off the sofa.

"Er… hello." I said, my eyebrows raised as I stared at them.

George grimaced at me, and Fred just shook his head.

"What's your problem?" I asked.

"Fever Fudge." muttered Fred.

"Boils." said George.

"In certain painful places.""We can't get rid of them."

I stifled a laugh, and instead put on my pity face. I didn't want to seem completely heartless, after all. Boys can be so sensitive sometimes.

"I'm sorry for you two… have you gone to Madam Pomfrey?"

Fred grimaced at me. "You want us to tell her that we've got pus-filled boils on our arses and our-"

I quickly put my hand over his mouth. "Please… don't finish that sentence."

George smiled faintly, although it didn't last long. "You understand our dilemma, then. Nothing we try is helping."I sat back again, twirling a strand of hair through my fingers.

"You've tried the obvious things, I suppose. Boil-Be-Gone? Anti-Abscess Cream?"

They both nodded.

I bit my lip and wracked my brain. I was fairly certain I had read about cures for boils somewhere before…

"I'll be back in a minute." I announced to the twins.

"We'll be here."

I ran up the girls staircase and grabbed the Care of Magical Creatures book from the small table beside Katie's bed. I flicked through the pages until I found what I was looking for, then closed the book with a triumphant smile.

The twins were arguing over who had the most boils when I returned to the common room.

"Streeler venom and shredded Puffeskein fur." I said.

"What?" They both looked at me strangely, as if _I_ was the crazy one who ran around testing things on herself.

"If you mix them into a poultice or something and put it on the boils, that should get rid of them."

"You're sure?" asked George.

I nodded. If there was one thing I knew, it was potions.

"Okay. In that case, it's time for a pleasant little trip to Snape's supply closet."

The corridors were nearly empty as we made our way down to the dungeons where Snape's classroom was. The twins were walking bowlegged and they both had pained looks on their faces.

"Puffeskein fur…Ron used to have a pet Puffeskein. Remember, George?" Fred said through clenched teeth. "What was it's name?"

"Fuzzy Frank." George said as we went down another flight of stairs.

"Right… stupidest name I've ever heard." Fred said.

"I once had a cat that I called Sir Meow." I said with a smile. That cat had been evil incarnate.

"Okay, now it's a tie between those two." Fred said.

"What happened to Frank?" I asked.

"Fred used it for bludger practice." George said as we reached the door to the Potions classroom.

I gaped at Fred, who just grinned. "You used it for-"

"Nevermind that. I think one of these boils just ruptured." Fred said, his grin changing to a grimace.

"Alohamora." whispered George. The lock clicked and I pushed the door open slowly.

The room was dark, and it smelled slightly acrid. I glanced around the corridor, then pulled the twins inside and closed the door again.

We went to the supply closet and began rummaging among the shelves.

"Boomslang skin, salamander scales, doxy venom…" I muttered to myself.

"Found the puffeskein fur." said George. He was holding a jar filled with a mustard colored powder. I wasn't sure how much we should take. I grabbed a small jar and just poured some of the ground puffeskein fur into it. I would figure out the amounts later.

Fred found a small vial of Streeler venom, and we hurried out of the store room before Snape could walk in and cheerfully give us a week of detentions.

=+=Fred=+=

I seriously regret testing out that Fever Fudge so soon.

We were on the third floor when George suddenly stopped. He cautiously put a hand on his side, then winced.

"The boils spread."

Eva and I stared at him, then I felt my own chest. My skin there had been hurting, and there were small red marks, but it had been nothing compared to the rest of me where the boils were. Even through my shirt, I could feel several painful bumps here and there.  
Hell.

"Let's just get this damn poultice made." I grumbled. Eva shifted the jars to one arm, and linked her arm with mine as we continued up the stairs, listening intently for any approaching footsteps. My mood immediately shifted from irritable to cheery.

She's touching me. Voluntarily! This is definitely progress...first step, handholding, next stop, snogging. **No. No. No.**

I have got to stop thinking that kind of thing about Eva, especially now that I actually have a girlfriend. I'd just give it a couple weeks, then me and Alicia could kiss. Surely _that _would finally erase any romantic intentions toward Eva from my mind.

We made it up to the common room safely.

The boils seemed to have grown larger during that short time, and now every little movement was like I was being stabbed. Repeatedly. By the time George and I stepped gingerly through the portrait hole, we were walking with our legs spread wide as they could go, our arms stuck out to the side. At first, the corners of Eva's mouth had quirked up every time she looked back at us, but now there was pity in her eyes.

George and I stood awkwardly beside the fireplace while Eva grabbed her cauldron from her dorm and lit a small fire underneath it. She looked unsure of herself as she held the two jars of ingredients in her hands.

"What is it?" George asked through clenched teeth.

Eva glanced up at us. "Er… nothing." She dumped both jars into the cauldron once the water in it had heated up to a boil. I wondered idly whether she should have measured them first, but I didn't say anything.

"So, maybe next time we should use less doxy venom, don't you think?" I asked George.

He nodded, then winced at the slight movement. "Maybe reduce the amount by a quarter. That should do it."

"Say, Eva."

She was stirring the contents of the cauldron, but she looked up at me. "What?"

"Maybe next time you could test this stuff out." I gave her my most handsome, endearing grin.

She stared at me a moment, then said incredulously "You're joking, right?"

I didn't answer. I had actually been very serious.

Several minutes later, Eva finally announced the stuff was done. It was emitting an greenish orange steam, and it smelled faintly like rotten eggs and chocolate. It was an odd combination, and one that made me sick to my stomach.

"You want us to smear _that_ on ourselves?" George said.

Eva conjured up long strips of bandages, then glared at the both of us. "Unless you want to go to bed with those boils all over you, yes."

She put the cauldron in George's arms and gave me the bandages.

"You know, Eva…" George said. "This would be so much easier if you would put this stuff on us. All over."

"You love us, right?" I said.

Eva didn't look like she loved us at all. She actually looked like she would prefer to strangle us.

"There is no way in hell I'm going to put this stuff all over you two." She looked pointedly at the region below my waistline. "I am not touching either of you down there."

Well, it was worth a try.

"Hey, Eva." I said before we left the common room with the cauldron and the bandages. I had to take this great opportunity to tease her.

"What?"

"So… how are we supposed to wrap the bandages around certain…hard to wrap places? I have boils in some very inconvenient spots." I leered suggestively at her.

She turned bright red. "Fred?"

"Yeah?"

"Figure it out."

~*~Eva~*~

"Just how long has this door been here?" I asked as Fred, George, and I stood in the seventh floor corridor, staring at a small wooden door that I was fairly sure hadn't been there earlier today. Ginny had informed us three that the very first meeting for Harry's club was supposed to be here tonight.

Neither of the twins answered me, but George opened the door, revealing a large room filled with strange devices and several colored cushions.

"It's the perfect place to practice this stuff in." Fred and George said at the same time.

"This is bizarre," said Fred, frowning around at it. "We once hid from Filch in here, remember, George? But it was just a broom cupboard then."

There were several people in the room already, sitting on the cushions and murmuring quietly to one another. A couple of them glanced up as we sat down, but then resumed their wide-eyed gazing about the room. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were grouped together in the center of the room, and when everybody had arrived, Harry went to the door and locked it. He turned to us all.

"Well, I've been thinking about the sort of stuff we ought to do first and- er -" Hermione raised her hand.

"What, Hermione?"

"I think we ought to elect a leader,' she said.

"Harry's leader," said an Asian looking girl. I noticed Harry's cheeks turning slightly pink.

"Yes, Cho, but I think we ought to vote on it properly," said Hermione, unperturbed. "It makes it formal and it gives him authority. So - everyone who thinks Harry ought to be our leader?"

Everybody put up their hand.

"Er- right, thanks," said Harry, shifting uncomfortably under our gazes. "And - _what_, Hermione?"

"I also think we ought to have a name," she said brightly, her hand still in the air. "It would promote a feeling of team spirit and unity, don't you think?"

"Can we be the Anti-Umbridge League?" said Angelina hopefully.

"The Defense Against Dunderheads Union?" I called out.

"Or the Ministry of Magic are Morons Group?" suggested Fred.

"I was thinking," said Hermione, frowning at Fred and I, "more of a name that didn't tell everyone what we were up to, so we can refer to it safely outside meetings."

The Defence Association?" said Cho. "The DA for short, so nobody knows what we're talking about?"

"Yeah, the DA's good," said Ginny. "Only let's make it stand for Dumbledore's Army, because that's the Ministry's worst fear, isn't it?"

There was a good deal of appreciative murmuring and laughter at this. I grinned at the twins as Hermione kneeled up on her cushion.

"All in favour of the DA?" she said. Most of us raised our hands. "That's a majority - motion passed!'

She pinned the piece of parchment with all of our signatures on it on to the wall and wrote across the top in large letters: Dumbledore's Army.

"Right," said Harry, when she had sat down again, "shall we get practising then? I was thinking, the first thing we should do is _Expelliarmus_, you know, the Disarming Charm. I know it's pretty basic but I've found it really useful -"

"Oh, _please_," said Zacharias Smith, rolling his eyes and folding his arms. "I don't think _Expelliarmus _is exactly going to help us against You-Know-Who, do you?"

"I've used it against him," said Harry quietly. "It saved my life in June."

Smith opened his mouth stupidly. The room suddenly was very quiet.

"But if you think it's beneath you, you can leave." Harry said.

Smith did not move. Nor did anybody else.

"Okay," said Harry, "I reckon we should all divide into pairs and practise."

I grabbed Lee and pulled him beside me.

"You're my partner." I said bossily.

He muttered something under his breath. I heard the words 'bossy dominatrix' and glared at him.

Lee just smiled innocently back at me. "I would be delighted to be your partner." he said.

I decided to be compassionate and forgiving and pretend I hadn't heard what he said about me. After all, even immature, resentful little prats like Lee deserve kindness. We faced each other and raised our wands.

"_Expelliarmus_!" I said. Lee's wand wiggled a bit, but he managed to keep a hold of it.

He grinned at me. "Better luck next time, Eva… _Expelliarmus_!" My wand soared out of my hand and hit a bookcase on the opposite side of the room.

Lee twirled his wand in his fingers and smirked at me.

"Git. I let you disarm me, you know." I said.

"Sure you did." He said. "_Accio Eva's wand._"

My wand glided back to him, and he handed it to me. I glanced around at everyone else. Luckily I wasn't the only one to have a less than perfect disarming spell.

Fred and George weren't practicing on each other. Instead, they were taking turns pointing their wands at Zacharias Smith. Every time he opened his mouth to disarm his partner, his own wand would fly out of his hand. Lee looked over to see what I was laughing at, and when he did, he began to laugh along with me. Fred glanced over at us, then winked at me as Harry came around and noticed what the twins were up to.

"Sorry, Harry" said George hastily. "Couldn't resist."

Lee and I faced each other again, and after a few more attempts, I had successfully disarmed Lee. Of course, I also lit part of his robe on fire. It was a bit of a mixed blessing. Lee picked up his wand again and faced me. He didn't seem to have noticed the tiny flame licking it's way up the hem of his robes.

"Lee." I said. "Extinguish yourself."

He glanced down and jumped in surprise. "_Aguementai_!" he cried, as Harry blew a whistle. The room quieted instantly, except for a splashing and sizzling noise as Lee managed to put the fire out.

"That wasn't bad," said Harry, "but there's definite room for improvement. Let's try again."

Lee looked wary once we resumed disarming each other. I guess he thought I would set him on fire again. But the rest of the meeting passed without incident, except for when one of the Creevey brothers accidentally collapsed a bookshelf, almost crushing Luna Lovegood.

Harry blew his whistle again and announced "Well, that was pretty good, but we've overrun, we'd better leave it here. Same time, same place next week?"

'Sooner!' said Dean Thomas eagerly and many people nodded in agreement, myself included.

Angelina, however, said quickly "The Quidditch season's about to start, we need team practices too!"

"Let's say next Wednesday night, then," said Harry, "we can decide on additional meetings then. Come on, we'd better get going."

He pulled out the Marauder's Map and let us all leave in threes and fours.

"Next meeting, someone else is Eva's partner." Lee said, inspecting a charred section of his robe as we walked to the common room.

I rolled my eyes. "Is little Lee upset that I ruined his pretty robes?"

"No." Lee said, dropping the hem of his robe. "Little Lee is afraid that next time you'll set his arm on fire."

I gave him a frosty look, and moved so that I was walking on the other side of George.

Like I said before, boys can be so sensitive.

I'm fairly sure Gryffindor is going to do horribly in Quidditch this year. I watched the team practice today, and it was a disaster. Ron could not manage to save anything, and the Slytherins had attended to watch and humiliate him, which only served to make him even more nervous and clumsy.

The practice ended when Fred and George had to take Katie to the hospital wing with the worst nosebleed I've ever seen in my life. I spent the rest of the day with Warren. Since the weather had turned nasty, we had to stay inside. For the first hour or so, he attempted to talk me out of helping the Order and being in the DA. When I threatened to go back to the Gryffindor common room, he finally stopped. So instead, he ended up dragging me to the library.

He was trying to do work for Transfiguration, but I kept tickling him and pulling his hair. He did his best to ignore me, but a tiny grin would appear on his face every now and again.

Finally he sighed. "Eva, would you like to go do something fun?"

"Why yes, that would be lovely."

Warren closed the book and grabbed my hand, pulling me out of the library.

We ate dinner together, then I headed back up to the common room. I was stopped in the hall by a small girl with frizzy red hair.

"You're supposed to go to Dumbledore's office." she said in a quiet voice.

I sighed and turned around. Great. Now I would be up half the night.

This time Tonks was there with Dumbledore. She grinned when I entered and said cheerfully "Wotcher."

She had me See five regular Death Eaters first. My head was pounding by the time I had finished, and only one Death Eater had actually been doing anything potentially suspicious. And even he had just been standing in an alleyway, probably waiting for somebody. This whole affair had to be a monumental waste of time. Surely the Order would realize that soon.

Dumbledore handed me the diary. I took it gingerly, a grimace on my face, then closed my eyes and concentrated on the book. Then I was there with Voldemort.

He was standing by an large marble fireplace at one end of an ornate, lavish room. It was a different place than he had been in the other six times I had checked up on him. So he had moved to a different little hidey-hole. The Order would be interested in that, I think. A short, fat man with beady eyes was cowering beside Voldemort.

"My lord…" he said.

Voldemort ignored the man and pulled out his wand. He was examining it, then suddenly he looked up. I swear, I could feel his eyes on me. I fell out of the vision, gasping. Tonks and Dumbledore were at my side in an instant.

"What is it? What did you see?" demanded Tonks.

I collapsed into a seat Dumbledore provided for me.

"He was just standing in a room, but…" I paused, leaning my head back. "It was like he knew I was there watching him."My words were met with silence.

"Interesting." said Dumbledore quietly. He looked thoughtful.

"I have to get back to the Order, they'll be impatient." Tonks stepped into the fireplace after I had told her everything else I had seen.

"You did good, Asher." she said, before disappearing.

"Would you like me to send for someone to help return you to your bed, Miss Asher?" Dumbledore said.

I shook my head and stood on shaky legs. "I'm fine."

I headed back to Gryffindor Tower, even though there was really no use in going to bed. I wouldn't be able to sleep anyway. I felt jumpy, restless. What if Voldemort knew that I was spying on him? What if he somehow found me, or worse, my family?

The common room was still crowded, as it wasn't yet eight o'clock. I looked around for the twins, since it was usually them that I went to whenever I had any news or worries. George and Lee were immersed in a game of Exploding Snap, and Alicia was curled up next to Fred on a sofa near the staircases. I didn't want to interrupt either Fred or George, so I found a quill and a sheet of parchment and began to write.

_Dear Mum and Dad,  
__I've been Seeing for the Order, like you wanted me to. __They've had me watching You-Know-Who, but I'm scared. __Tonight, it felt like he could see me. I'm worried that he'll somehow find out about me, and to get to me, he could go after you all.  
__It's a long shot, I know, but I'm still worried. __So please be extra careful, and watch Elliot.  
__- Eva_

Then I realized that I couldn't even send it. Moody had told all of us before we got onto the train that we shouldn't put anything regarding the Order into a letter.

So I crumpled it up and threw it in the fire, feeling very lonely all of a sudden.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer (I keep forgetting to add this): I don't own Harry Potter. And I'm certainly not making any money off this story. So don't sue me.

~*~Eva~*~

The next few weeks went by rather quickly. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see as much of the twins as I normally did. Angelina was always dragging the whole Quidditch team out to practice, no matter the weather, and no matter the time. On weekends, she roused them early at dawn and hurried them out to the Quidditch pitch. She frequently scheduled practices for the evenings, and I knew every member of the team was ready to collapse with exhaustion.

The sad thing was that the few times I attended the practices, they seemed no better. In fact, they seemed worse. The Slytherins took an insane pleasure in sitting in the stands during practice, and yelling things out to the players. Especially Ron. Even Warren seemed to feel sorry for the Gryffindor team.

"Now it's just getting pathetic." he said as we watched Malfoy and a group of Slytherins imitating the Quidditch team. Malfoy was pretending to be Ron, and he kept doing wild flailing movements that vaguely looked like he was dancing.

"It is a fairly good impression of him, though." he admitted.

I elbowed Warren, even though I knew he was right.

The morning of the first quidditch match dawned cold and dreary. I made my way down across the grounds, wishing I had brought my thickest pair of gloves. It was freezing outside, my hands were numb, and the match hadn't even begun yet. I found a place in the stands among the other Gryffindors, and was soon joined by Hermione and Ginny.

"Did you see Ron?" asked Hermione.

"He looked about to throw up all over Harry." I replied.

Hermione and Ginny shook their heads, then began to clap as the Gryffindor team walked out onto the field.

I had figured that Ron would become more comfortable once he got into the air, but it turned out I was wrong. He let in goal after goal. And the song the Slytherins were singing probably wasn't helping his nerves any.

_"'Weasley was born in a bin_  
_He always lets the Quaffle in_  
_Weasley will make sure we win_  
_Weasley is our King."_

Hermione looked over at me, shaking her head worriedly. Lee was the commentator, and despite his best efforts, he was unable to drown out the voices of the Slytherins. The match was torturous, really. Probably even more so for the actual team. I had just begun wishing that Malfoy would catch the Snitch and end Gryffindor's misery when two blurs whipped by the stands, both reaching out for a small glittering ball that was the Snitch. Then red blur, Harry, pulled ahead, and his hand wrapped around it.

"Potter catches the Snitch, and Gryffindor wins the match!" shouted Lee.

The Gryffindor stands erupted into cheers that quickly turned to jeers and boos as Crabbe hit a Bludger, and it smashed into Harry and threw him forward off his broom. Madam Hooch blew her whistle and everybody landed on the field.

She began yelling at Crabbe, and a group of Slytherins approached the celebrating Gryffindor team. I stopped cheering and stood up as Fred suddenly whirled toward Malfoy. Alicia grabbed his arm and held him back. Malfoy said something else, and Harry grabbed hold of George. Meanwhile, it was taking the combined efforts of Angelina, Alicia and Katie to stop Fred leaping on Malfoy.

McGonagall passed me and Hermione and pushed her way through the stands. What the hell was going on down there?

Hermione gasped, and I looked back to the field.

Harry and George had tackled and were punching every inch of him they could reach. Malfoy couldn't very well fight back, but he did manage to get in a few hits before he was forced to the ground. Madam Hooch had _finally_ noticed what was going on. She yelled something, pointing her wand at the boys, and Harry and George were thrown off of a bloodied Malfoy.

McGonagall had made it down to the pitch, and she and Madam Hooch were both screaming things at Harry and George.

They were sent off the field, and then Madam Hooch pointed at the changing rooms, and the two teams filed in.

I was still standing up, my hands gripping the rail. "Where did Ron go?" said Hermione.

I didn't know, but I had other things on my mind than Ron. I had never seen McGonagall looking so angry. George and Harry would definitely be in detention for weeks after this incident. It didn't seem fair. Obviously Malfoy had said something to provoke them. But the little git wouldn't be getting detentions, you could bet on that. Snape would probably be congratulating him later.

Stupid Snape. Stupid Malfoy.  
Stupid Slytherins.

Fred and George have been banned from Quidditch. Harry, too. Fred's voice was hollow when he told me.

"You didn't even hit Malfoy!" I said angrily.

"I would have."

Angelina was in a horrible mood for the next few days, and she kept throwing dark looks at the twins. If looks killed, they would be dead a hundred times over. Alicia and Katie were annoyed too, but at least Alicia had a bit of sympathy for Fred and George. She sat with Fred most evenings in the common room, patting his arm, leaning against him, and generally trying to lighten his mood. Nothing worked for long though, and the twins continued to be moody and irritable.

I was getting sick and tired of it, to be honest.

On Saturday Angelina put a notice up on the bulletin board about Quidditch tryouts. Fred and George looked sadly at it, then they both sighed.

"Okay, you two. It's time to stop moping." I said. "Sweet Merlin, you're both acting as if you were banned from ever sitting on a broom again."

They looked morosely up at me.

"I've decided we're going outside, whether you two want to or not."

It had begun snowing yesterday and all throughout the night, and the castle and grounds were covered with a thick layer of white. Half the school was already outside in the snow, and every once in awhile I heard a joyful shout. It sounded like fun, and there was no way I was going to spend the rest of the day cooped up in the common room.

"Put on your winter things." I commanded the twins, and I ran upstairs to get dressed.

I came back down with my coat and scarf on. The twins were standing by the fire.

"Where are your hats?" I asked as I went to stand by them. "Your ears will be freezing."

"You're not wearing a hat." Fred pointed out.

"And what about scarves? You two are aware there's snow outside, right?" I continued. I zipped up Fred's coat and brushed a piece of fuzz off his shoulder, then did the same to George's coat.

"We know how to dress for the cold, you know." George said.

"Obviously not." I said. "But, okay, fine… if you two want your ears to fall off from frostbite, go ahead. Just remember that I told you so."

"You're not wearing a hat." Fred repeated. I ignored him and began pulling on my gloves.

"You at least remembered gloves, right?" I said.

They had, and they both slipped them on. It's nice to know they're not completely incapable of dressing themselves. I grabbed their hands and pulled them out of the common room and outside the castle.

It was almost blinding, with sun glinting off the snow. The air was crisp and cold. It was that kind of air that sort of wakes you up with a snap, and makes you feel even more alive than usual. Or maybe I was just really happy to finally be outside.

"Okay, now it's time to cheer up and act like yourselves again." I said as we stood outside in the nearly knee-deep snow near Lee and a couple of other Gryffindors.

The twins just sort of stood there, so I had to give them an extra little push. I quickly built a small wall of snow to protect myself, then made a snowball and tossed it at Fred, whose face had turned to the distant Quidditch Pitch. George saw the snowball coming, and he yelled and pointed at it.

Fred spun around and the snowball hit him in the chest. I laughed and ducked back behind my wall of snow as he sent a snowball flying at me in retaliation.

"Missed me!" I cried, jumping up again. A snowball suddenly flew at me and hit me right between the eyes, splattering cold snow all across my face.

The people watching burst into laughter, and the snowball war was on. Lee joined in, and I was supposed to be on his side. But I turned traitor and began bombarding him with snowballs instead. I fled to the twin's little makeshift fort.

"Come to the winning side, have you?" George asked.

"I knew you had a brain somewhere in that head of yours." Fred said. They both had identical wide grins on their red-flushed faces. Fred and George were finally back to their normal cheery selves.

Of course, when they weren't looking I stomped on their snowballs and rammed into their fort to knock it down. I ran away and rejoined Lee, who was laughing at them.

Fred and George yelled their protests. "You're a dirty traitor, Eva!" George shouted as he and Fred knelt down in the snow.

They hurriedly began building up their fort again, but Lee and I moved in and enchanted dozens of snowballs to take them down. We ended the war victorious. Then George suggested we have a sledding contest. Somebody managed to find some sleds, and a few other people joined in.

Lee refused to be on my team.

"She's too light." he complained. "We'll never go faster than everybody else."

So Fred volunteered to be with me, and we all trudged up to the top of one of the steepest hills on the grounds. I got in the front and Fred stood behind the sled, ready to push it off the hill. Alicia was the announcer, and she stood way down at the bottom.

"Ready…" she yelled, her voice just barely carrying to us and the other five teams on their sleds. "Go!"

Fred began to run, then jumped on behind me as we began to slide down the hill, quickly picking up speed. The hill was very steep, and we flew down it, cold wind stinging my face and numbing my nose. I looked around us. One sled had already crashed, and the people in it were picking themselves up out of the snow, laughing. Still, three other sleds were ahead of us

Well, that wouldn't do. We certainly couldn't lose.

I began turning around, laying down on the sled on my stomach. Fred was looking at me like I was crazy, and he grabbed onto my coat so I didn't fall off the sled.

"What are you doing?" he yelled over the wind.

"Cheating!" I yelled back. I pulled out my wand and stretched my arm past Fred's body, just past the back of the sled.

"Ventus!" I yelled, and a burst of wind shot out of my wand, propelling us forward. I remember screaming, and Fred was yelling and laughing and cursing all at the same time. I barely managed to sit back up without falling off the sled. We were far in the lead now. We sped past where Alicia and the crowd of onlookers were standing. They were just a colored blur, there for a second, then gone. Then I saw a snowdrift sticking up ahead of us. There was no time to avoid, it, so I leaned back into Fred, my eyes closed, praying I wouldn't hit a tree and die. Then Fred and George really would have a reason to sulk.

We hit the snow bank and were tossed forward and off the sled. I landed in the snow and lay there for a breath of a second, then Fred landed on top of me, knocking all the wind out of my chest and sending pain wracking through my body.

On the upside, at least I didn't hit a tree. We both just lay there for a moment, then Fred raised his head and we stared at each other.

A grin slowly lit up his face. "We won."

"You seem surprised."

"I volunteered to be on your team fully expecting to lose." he said as he rolled off of me and sat up.

"Git."

"Well, look at you. You're too scrawny. You look like the wind could just… blow you away." he grinned at me.

I grabbed a handful of snow and leapt toward him, trying to shove it down his shirt, but he grabbed my wrists and tackled me to the cold ground, pressing his body against mine. His legs were sort of spread apart, so that they were to either side of mine. I tried to use that space to kick him, but my legs just ended up flailing uselessly. I suppose I should have known better than to try and surprise a quidditch player. Quick reflexes is practically a requirement to play.

"Like I said. You're too weak." He moved his face closer to mine and smiled. "Too little. Too scrawny."

"Wanna see what this little scrawny girl could to you with just her hands?" And my handy-dandy wand, of course. But that just goes without saying.

Fred pretended to think about it. "Yes, I think that would be a pleasant experience."I frowned and stuck my tongue out at him.

"Get off, Fred, before everybody finds us. Before Alicia finds us." I threw out her name hoping he would want to avoid her seeing him sitting on top of me.

"It'll be a few minutes. We flew pretty far past them." He said, shrugging it off.

"Get off of me, Weasley." I said again.

"Ooh. By using my last name, you think I'll listen. That's cute."I kicked at him again, tossing my head to the side in my struggle to throw him off of me.

"Stop that." he said.

"Get off me, and I will."

"You stop first."

I lay there, waiting for him to climb off of me, but he only stared down at me with a stupid grin on his face. I decided to inform him of that fact.

"You have a stupid grin on your face." I said.

"I thought you liked my smile."

"No, it's you that likes my smile. Remember?"

"Oh yeah, and you like my muscular body."

I started trying to kick him again. "I do not!"

Fred glanced around us. Nobody was coming yet. Where the hell were they? Surely we didn't go that far past them. Although, we had been going pretty fast… Damn.

"So… you're saying that if I were to…oh, I don't know, press up against you, you would be completely indifferent?" His eyes were fixed on my face, and the corners of his mouth were curling up.

"I would be completely indifferent." I tried to fix him with a frosty glare, but it was ruined when he suddenly leaned down, and our chests were pressed tightly together. He leaned his head down a little and met my eyes.

"So you're completely indifferent? You barely even notice me laying on top of you?"

I nodded, trying not to think about how warm Fred was, or the way his body covered mine, pressing up all over me. I hoped like hell that he couldn't feel the way my heartbeat suddenly sped up. But I could feel my cheeks heating up slightly, and I knew that I was probably blushing. He could definitely see that.  
Double damn.

"I am… completely indifferent." I said weakly. "I mean, you could just sit here all day, and I wouldn't even notice."

"Oh really?"

Please, please let somebody find us and get him off of me, I prayed. I knew that if he figured out this bothered me, then he would begin teasing me this way all the time. And I most certainly did not want that.

"I think you're lying." he said with a smile. He saw right through my fake casual act.

I merely glared up at him. Oh god, he was so close I could have lain there and counted his freckles. (If there weren't so many of them.)

"Get off, Fred." I said, managing to make my voice sound firm.

I heard somebody calling out our names. I did not want to be caught with him on top of me like this. With that thought, I decided on a way to get Fred off of me.

"Hey, Fred." I said quietly, eying his nose. "Lean closer."

He gave me a strange look, but he slowly obliged. Our noses were nearly touching. Perfect.

"Close your eyes." I breathed, trying to force down a smile. A flash of guilt crossed his face and he seemed about to lean away and get off of me, but then the guilty look disappeared and he shut his eyes.

I leaned closer and closer, craning my head 's eyes were still closed, and I felt a shiver run through him as I breathed warm air across his lips. Then I leaned up even further and bit his nose. His eyes flew open and he rolled off of me, grabbing his nose and cursing.

"Seriously, Fred? I didn't bite you that hard." I said as I stood up and brushed the snow off of me.

He was clutching his face, glaring at me.

"That was a dirty trick." He said resentfully.

"Well, what did you expect?"

"Not for you to bite my nose, that's for sure. Bloody hell, woman."

"Let me see it." I reached up and tried to pull his hands away from his nose.

"No." He sounded like a petulant child.

"Fred." I said sternly. "Let me see it."

He allowed me to move his hands aside, and I stood on my tiptoes and inspected it while he continued to give me dirty looks. I didn't know what he was complaining about, really. There were a couple tiny red tooth marks, but that was it.

"You're such a baby." I said, dropping his hands.

"There you two are!" someone yelled.

We returned to where the winner of the race was being debated. It turned out that George and Lee had come in second.

"You two cheated, so we win." Lee said as we neared them.

"Alicia never said cheating was against the rules." Fred said.

"It just goes without saying, mate!"

The real winners were never decided, although the boys spent the walk back to the castle arguing over it.

=+=Fred=+=

"Fred… are those… bite marks on your nose?" George asked, looking curiously at my face as we left the Owlery later that day.

"No." I said hastily.

"Right. I'm not even going to ask." he said. There was a slight pause, then he said, "Okay, I can't resist. Why did somebody bite your nose? And who exactly was close enough to bite your nose?"

I sighed. I knew George would never stop bothering me about it until I told him. "Eva bit me."

He grinned. "So, did she just suddenly develop a taste for flesh, or… what?"

"No."

"Then what happened?" He was still grinning at me, even as we headed up the staircase.

"I almost did something I shouldn't have." I said, running my hands through my hair.

"Explain."

"Do we really have-" I began.

"Yes, we do have to do this." George said.

"I thought Eva would kiss me. I was going to let her. She bit me, instead." I said it quickly, hoping to get the conversation over with and change the subject.

"Oh.""I don't even think the thought crossed her mind." I said. And it very likely hadn't. It had crossed my mind, though. Hell, it had blazed through the gates, broken down the door, and bulldozed over every other thought. Even Alicia.  
And that's what had me worried.

"I really don't envy you, mate." George said idly as we headed through a shortcut that led to Gryffindor tower. "Women… they make you crazy sometimes."

"Too crazy." I agreed.

We entered the common room to find it in chaos. It seemed like half of Gryffindor was standing around the common room in their pajamas, trying to fit blankets and sleeping bags so that they would all lay on the floor. It was noisy and crowded, and nearly all the chairs and tables were stacked near the staircases.

"No, Seamus, scoot it to the right and make room for Lavender and Parvati!" Eva yelled. She was standing atop a table, trying to organize the whole mess.

George and I weaved our way through dozens of sleeping bags and pillows.

"Oh, hello." Eva said when she saw us. "We're having a slumber party."

"Yeah, we figured that." George said, glancing around the room. "Might I ask why?"

Eva held up a finger, her gaze going past us both. "Hold that thought." She jumped off the table and crossed the room to where a couple of girls were in an argument over the rights to the spot nearest the fireplace.

Eva interrupted them. "Seeing as I'm the one whose running this whole thing, I get the best spot."

The girls glared at her, but then grumpily picked up their things and went to an open spot near the middle of the room.

Eva glanced at George and I. "If you two want, you can share this spot with me. So can Alicia and Lee or whoever…Either that or you can just go sleep in your dorm. But you'll miss all the fun."

"Okay, fine. Why a slumber party, though?" George said.

"I don't know. I just felt like it. Everybody seemed to like the idea. Also, I figured I would take care of sleeping arrangements, and you could both deal with entertainment, food, drinks, and, of course, the clean-up."

"Oh, nice of you to volunteer us." I said.

"We really appreciate it." George said.

Eva nodded absently, gazing across the common room. "Yes… you might want to get going on the arrangements. I made some promises to everybody." She frowned and pulled a list out of her pocket.

"Can you take care of everything on here?" She handed it to George and turned away without waiting for an answer.

George had unfolded the paper, and he was reading it, his face slightly bewildered.

"What the hell does she need a hundred bottles of butterbeer and a giant barrel for?" he asked. I leaned over and read from the list.

It went on and on, with the items getting increasingly ridiculous or impossible to obtain. But, at the very end:

_A new red scarf. _

I think that by then Eva had begun just adding things she would like to own. George and I looked at each other. I shook my head slightly.

"We'll get the food. That's it."

It was nearly one o'clock by the time everybody began laying down and going to sleep.

I felt more than a little guilty as Alicia snuggled up against me. I had been perfectly willing to kiss Eva earlier today in the snow, and now, here I was, cozying up with Alicia. I'm such a git. I made up my mind that tomorrow I would sort through the situation I was in. Tonight, though, I would enjoy cuddling up to a girl who liked me as more than just a friend.

"G'night, Fred." Alicia whispered, turning her head around to smile softly at me.

I nodded. "Night."

Not ten minutes later, Eva poked me sharply in the side. "Want to hear a bedtime story?" she said.

I looked around and raised my eyebrows. "I'm seventeen."

She rolled her eyes, the flickering firelight casting shadows on her face. "I know how old you are. Idiot. That doesn't mean you can't enjoy a nice story."

"Well, I don't think-"

"Shut it. I'm telling you a story so you can go to sleep."

I just love Eva's sweet, gentle personality.

"Fine." I whispered.

"Okay." she rolled onto her stomach and smiled at me. "Once, a long long time ago-"

"How long are we talking, here? Ten years, a hundred, a thousand?" George interrupted from his blankets.

"Er… three hundred and seventy two years ago there was a witch-princess named Eviana, and she had two obedient servant friends, Freidrich and Geraldo."

Oh. Great. A story about a witch-princess. My favorite.

Eva launched into a long story about the witch-princess, whose name just happened to be very close to her own. George and I would occasionally snicker at something, or ask annoying questions. By the time Eva had reached the end of the story, a few other people had rolled over to listen.

"So, wait. You said that Friedrich and Geraldo were imprisoned by the dragon-toad, right?" asked Katie.

"Yes." Eva said, twirling a strand of hair around her finger. "Until Eviana rescues them."

"But Eviana kills the dragon-toad with her bare hands. She wasn't even trained in combat, but Friedrich and Geraldo were. Why couldn't they kill it?"

Eva stopped twirling her hair, a frown on her face. "Well… Eviana was the only one who knew the dragon-toad's weak spot. It would have been immune to their attacks otherwise."

"Where did she learn where the weak spot was?" George asked.

Eva paused. "Well… her… father taught her. Yes."

"Didn't you say her father had a disease that made him go insane?" asked a tiny first-year boy, peeking his head out of his sleeping bag.

Eva looked annoyed at all of us for poking holes in her storyline. "He taught her before he went insane."

"But you said that Eviana could barely remember her father ever being sane." Lee said, grinning.

"He wrote it in a book, then."

"But Eviana's whole family was illiterate, except Eviana."

Eva sighed. "Okay… her father told her mother, who then told Eviana. But that's not the point of the story."

"I had a bit of a problem with how you portrayed Friedrich and Geraldo." I said.

Eva glared at me. "Oh?"

"Why would they even keep working for Eviana? She doesn't pay them, even. What's their motivation? "

"Well, they're loyal to the royal family. Plus, they love and adore her, just like the rest of the peasants."

"I have a question too." said Lee. "How is Eviana's father still the king?"

"What do you mean?" Eva said.

"He's supposedly insane and illiterate, right? Why is he still king?"

Eva glared around at all of us. "Forget it. I try to tell a nice story, and you all just sit here and nitpick. I even had a sequel all planned out in my head. But you don't get to hear it." She crossed her arms, still frowning.

"Oh, I bet that there's a love interest in the sequel." said Alicia. She had rolled over and was listening to Eva's story with her head resting on her hands.

"Of course there's a love interest." Eva said. "Eviana is the most beautiful and talented princess in the land. Who could resist her?"

All the boys who were listening grimaced. The story had been alright when Eviana was fighting bandits and killing monsters, but now…

"Does she fall in love with a prince?" Katie asked.

Eva shook her head. "No. She falls in love with a peasant. But he gets kidnapped by the mate of the dragon-toad."

"I think I recognize a common theme." I said dryly. "Let me guess; Eviana kills it with her bare hands, something that nobody else seems able to do. And she never even gets her dress dirty."

Eva glanced away from me. "Er… actually…"

"Eva, that's not a sequel, that's exactly what happened in the first story. You just switched the characters around."

She decided to ignore me. "I'm going to sleep." she said, laying down and pulling the blankets around her.

"Stupid git." she muttered. "It was a damn good story."


	9. Chapter 9

I wasn't so sure about this chapter, after the first little bit… I don't know if it's a bit melodramatic or not. But…anyway, please review, critique, etc. I appreciate each and every review very, very much! …Also, a very special thanks to LimeGreenSassyPants, azngurl113219, Alisha of Troy, fruityloops 156, and MOR 21, all of whom have reviewed more than once!

XX

~*~Eva~*~

"So, is Alicia's family rich?" I asked George.

I had been watching Fred and Alicia from across the common room, where Alicia sat on Fred's lap, her arms entwined around him. She kept whispering things into his ear and giggling loudly.

It was getting a bit annoying, to tell the truth. Alicia sounded like a twit when she giggled. And besides, I was trying to work on an essay for Charms, and they were distracting me.

George looked up from the letter he was writing. "Why?"

"If they get married, I want Freddie to be able to mooch off her parents and never have to work." I said, tearing my eyes away from the couple.

George snorted. "As long as Fred's girlfriend can support him, you'll be satisfied?"

"Well, I want him to be happy, of course. She has to make him laugh, and she has to love him. She'll obviously need to be forgiving, because surely you two would play a ton of pranks on her."

George began to smile as I listed off the requirements that a girl would need to meet before she could marry Fred.

"-but, I suppose that if the girl doesn't enjoy his favorite foods, it would be alright, as long as she cooked them for him without complaining." I finished.

"You do realize that no girl in the world could ever be all that, right?" he said.

"But if she can meet even half of them, I'll be happy." I said.

Another giggle from Alicia made George and I both look in their direction.

"Actually…" George said slowly. "I'm a bit surprised to see them together. He acted like he was going to break up with her."

"What?" All thoughts of my essay being due tomorrow were banished from my mind. "They seem happy with each other, though."

He looked at me for a long moment, then glanced back down to his letter. "Alicia's happy. Fred acts like he is."

I was about to bombard him with curious questions, but he folded the letter and stood.

"I've got to get this up to the Owlery. Care to join me?"I shook my head, and he left the portrait hole. I went back to my essay, and found that for some reason, Alicia's giggles weren't near as annoying as they had been only minutes earlier.

=+=Fred=+=

"Good job, Alicia." said Harry.

Alicia grinned at him as we all looked at the pile of dust that had only three seconds previously been an embroidered red cushion.

We were at another DA meeting, and this time Harry had everybody practicing their Reductor curses.

"I can do better." I said to Alicia once Harry had moved away.

"Prove it." she said with a grin. "Show me just how good you are, Fred Weasley."

I raised my wand and pointed it at a bookshelf, then winked at Alicia.

"Prepare to be astounded." I said. "Reducto!"

There was a jet of orange light, then the bookshelf and all the books on it crumbled into a large pile of dust. I heard a girl shriek, then Hermione rushed up, her face white.

"What have you done?" she cried, her hands pressed to her cheeks. "You were supposed to practice on the cushions, Fred! The cushions!"

Most of the room had stopped practicing when they heard Hermione scream, and now they stood staring as she bordered on the edge of an emotional breakdown. Alicia was struggling to restrain her laughter, hiding her smile behind her hand.

"Sorry, Hermione. Besides…" I paused, then grinned at her. "They're just books, anyway."

Hermione's face went red, just as I had known it would.

"Yeah, it's not like people actually read those things." said George from the front of the crowd.

"I personally find that they make an excellent alternative to firewood." Eva said. She and George were smiling at each other.

"Er… Hermione, it's alright, we can just replace-" Harry began.

"Fine." Hermione said. She went to turn away, but then looked sternly back at me. "Fred, if you ever destroy another shelf of books again…"

She didn't finish the threat, but I caught her meaning. Something bad would happen to me.  
Something very bad.

Everybody went back to practicing, chuckling over the incident, and Alicia turned to me.

"Okay then. You win this round, Fred." she said.

"I told you so."

I winced inwardly as the words came out. That wasn't something I usually said . Cheerfully gloating about being right was more Eva's thing than mine. Alicia went back to working on her Reductor curse. I just watched her practice the rest of the meeting, since my own Reductor curse was so wonderfully perfect already.

/^/Warren/^/

I had been standing in front of Umbridge's door for nearly ten minutes, my fist hovering mere inches away from the wood. If I did this, I risked losing the best thing here at Hogwarts. But if I didn't...

I knocked on the door.

"Come in." Umbridge said sweetly.

I entered the room, looking around in distaste at her office. Dozens of paintings of cats lined the walls, and the place was an explosion of pink. Umbridge sat behind her desk, a frilly little bow perched on her head.

"Good evening, Mr. Leighton. Is something troubling you?" she said.

"I… maybe." I said as I sat down across from her. "I'm not sure."

Umbridge tilted her head, her expression politely curious. "Might I inquire as to what this visit is about?" she said.

I swallowed. "Well… it's about… Eva and a group of… others."

Umbridge nodded. "Ah, yes. Miss Asher."

"Something, a club she's involved in… has me concerned."

Umbridge's bulgy eyes lit up, and she leaned forward over her desk. "Please, continue, Mr. Leighton."

Should I really be doing this?  
I felt like a git, but I also felt that putting a stop to the DA was right. It was a dangerous club. I was just surprised that Eva and the rest of the members didn't seem to realize it. Eva insisted it was harmless, that she would likely never use what they learned. Maybe I'm an overprotective prat, but I'm far from stupid. I'm sure they were all intending to fight Death Eaters with what they learned in the DA. Some things are more important than what a person thinks about you, and I couldn't let Eva run off and get killed, whether she hated me for it or not.

I had opened my mouth, ready to tell Umbridge what I knew, when someone knocked roughly on the door.

Umbridge looked annoyed, but her voice was polite as ever when she said "Come in."

Filch hauled the Weasley twins in. Fred gave me that same contemptuous look he always did when I saw him, but George only looked curious as to why I was meeting with Umbridge.

"I found these two trying to hang up a new decree with all the others you've passed." Filch growled.

"Exactly what did this decree state?" Umbridge asked.

Filch leaned out into the corridor and picked up a large flyer. He clumsily unrolled it to reveal words printed in large black lettering:

_Educational Decree 24 _

_States that_

_Professor Dolores Jane Umbridge _

_Is hereby ordered to_

_Begin releasing all of her_

_excess gas in private._

Fred and George grinned proudly as Umbridge mouthed the words 'excess gas'. Even I had to struggle to contain a grin.

"This is…I…Fifty points each from Gryffindor."The smiles slid off Fred and George's faces.

"That's-" George began to say, but Umbridge interrupted him.

"Mr. Weasley, you will learn eventually that what I do here is necessary. This school is in need of proper authority." She smiled sweetly. "I understand that you are quite unused to being reined in, but you will grow accustomed to it in time. Until then, I will keep punishing you for your behavior."

I'm fairly sure Umbridge forgot I was here as she continued to lecture Fred and George. Finally I cleared my throat, and she glanced over.

"Is it alright if I left?" I said. "I have work to do…"

Umbridge nodded. "Perhaps you can return another, more convenient time and continue telling me your concerns about this group Miss Asher is associating with."

Fred and George's eyes fixed on me, and I sighed inwardly. Of course she would have to mention that in front of them. They would tell Eva, Eva would get angry at me… It's for the best.

=+=Fred=+=

I didn't know what the hell Warren had been chatting with Umbridge about, but it sounded to me like he had been ready to tell her all about Dumbledore's Army. Umbridge let us go almost immediately after Warren left, and George and I, instead of heading for Gryffindor tower, began running the direction of the Ravenclaw common room.

"Was the git going to blab?" he asked as we ran to catch up to Warren.

"Probably."

Warren looked around in surprise as our footsteps pounded after him. He looked more than unhappy to see us.

"What?" he asked as we slowed to a stop.

"You and Umbridge." George said. "What was it you were talking about?"

"And why was Eva involved?" I said.

Warren glanced at me. "Of course you'd be concerned about that." he muttered as he turned away and continued down the corridor. "Regardless, I believe that that's between Umbridge and I."

"No, I believe it isn't." George said as we followed him.

"Does it really matter?" Warren said. "I was unable to speak to her about it, thanks to your little interruption."

"Ah. You're very welcome, then." I said. "It was about the DA, wasn't it?"

He nodded.

"You damn git." I said angrily, now that my suspicions were confirmed. "If you squeal on us, we'll all be punished. Every single one of us will be in detention."

Warren didn't even look sideways at me. "Better in detention than dead."

"You're a nutter, you know that?" George said.

"It may surprise you, Leighton, but joining a club doesn't automatically sentence you to death." I said sarcastically.

What an overdramatic moron.

He let out a short laugh. "You two are both fools. You can't see the bigger picture."

"Care to enlighten us, then?" I said.

"We're dying to know your justification for being an arse." George said.

Warren stopped walking, then turned to George. "My justification?" He said. "Okay then. You think the DA is a club to learn spells, 'just in case', right?" He didn't wait for our answer before continuing. "It won't stop at that, though. You'll all know the spells, you'll know how to defend yourself. And of course you won't be happy with that. You'll start to think that you should be out on the front lines, fighting the Death Eaters. Being heroes."

Warren turned away from us, running both his hands through his blond hair. "But the thing is, Weasleys, the Death Eaters are far more powerful, far more experienced than all of you. You'll run out there, cast a few spells, maybe a stun a Death Eater or two, then you'll get hit by a stray killing curse."

He turned back to us, and there was a sad, yet maniacal look in his eyes as he said "You all keep telling me that joining this club is harmless. It's not."

"Someone has to fight." I said.

"Exactly." George said. "Why not us?"

"Because you're no match for the Death Eaters!" Warren yelled. "You'll all be killed. Dead. Buried in the goddamn ground, rotting, before you're even twenty. You're underestimating them!"

I exchanged a look with George. Crazy as this guy seemed, he might have had a point. But that certainly didn't mean I was going to just up and quit fighting.

"Sometimes there are more important things than personal safety." I said.

Warren snorted. "Okay. Maybe. But how do you justify letting somebody you love get themselves killed? Would you really just sit by and watch, saying 'more important things than safety'?"

Neither George or I answered him, thinking of Mum, Dad, Ginny, Ron, Bill, Charlie, Eva. Even Percy, great big prat that he was.

"You see why I have to tell Umbridge?" Warren said, taking our silence for understanding. "It's for the best."

I pushed the doubts away. "I'll put a tongue tying curse on you if you try it." I said firmly.

"You're a reckless, selfish, stupid glory-hound." Warren said bitterly."Don't be a moron, Leighton." George said.

Warren studied us both, then tilted his head. "I wonder what the funeral will be like. Such a tragic thing it will be, for one to die with so much life ahead of them. Killed by Death Eaters…"

"Who the hell are you talking about?" George demanded. He sounded nearly as angry as I felt.

"Oh, you can fill in the blanks." Warren said. "Maybe it's your little sister. Maybe it's Ron. Maybe it's even … Eva. Hey, maybe they'll all be killed. But it won't matter, right? After all, there's far more important things than personal safety. Who cares if they die?"

Bastard.

All of my dislike of him was pushed to the forefront of my mind, and I stopped trying to keep myself from breaking his nose, swinging my fist at him. It collided with his nose, producing a sickening crunch. Then Warren lunged at me, fists out, but I managed to force him to the ground. I was hitting him in the stomach, or the side, I don't even know which, punctuating each word with a savage punch. "You-" _punch _"-damn-" _punch_ "-bloody-" _punch_ "-bastard!"

I had been wanting to do this for so long.

I felt George grabbing my shoulder. "Fred!" He yelled, ever the more sensible of us two. "Stop!"

He managed to wrestle me off of Warren just as McGonagall came around the corner. Her mouth tightened into a thin line as she walked toward us, taking in Warren, who was bloody and battered, and George, who was holding me back from jumping on him again.

Warren managed to stagger to his feet. He spat a glob of blood onto the ground and glared at me.

"Did I touch a nerve, Weasley?" his voice was taunting, if a bit slurred. "Maybe you aren't so confident in your beliefs after all."

McGonagall tried to send Warren to the hospital wing, but he refused and went back to the Ravenclaw common room. She sent George back to Gryffindor tower, and had me follow her to her office. My face began to ache. I hadn't even realized I had been hit.

McGonagall sat down across from me, folding her hands on her desk.

"Fighting in the halls, Mr. Weasley. I must admit that while I knew you to happily flaunt our other rules, this aggression comes as a surprise."

"We just had a small disagreement." I said. "That's it."

"I doubt that a mere disagreement would cause you to incite violence against a fellow student." McGonagall said, watching me carefully.

"Ah, you're a shrewd woman, Minerva." I said as I detected the taste of blood in my mouth. I didn't volunteer any information, though, and she finally turned away from me and said "Three days of detention for assaulting Mr. Leighton. Now return to your common room.

[George]

Fred's in trouble with Eva.

She was in the common room, happily playing (and losing) a game of Wizard's Chess with Lee, Katie, and Ron when I pulled her away. She sat calm and still as I explained what had happened with Fred and Warren. She didn't move, didn't frown, didn't even say a word. Until Fred stepped through the portrait hole, his face swelling up and bruising, his lip bloody and swollen.

Eva looked at him, her eyes narrowing. "What the hell, Fred?" she yelled across the common room, getting to her feet and storming towards him. The five or six people in the room all craned their heads around to watch.

Fred looked a bit scared, and he made this twisting movement like he was getting ready to run back out of the common room and hide behind a tapestry until Eva forgot about being angry. But, brave soul that he is, he straightened his shoulders and faced her. I decided to go give moral support, and get a better view of what was happening, so I joined them beside the portrait hole.

Eva had lifted her hand back like she was about to slap him, but her gaze ran over his already battered face, and she seemed to think better of it.

"What the hell?" she repeated. "You beat Warren up because of something he said to you?"

"I see George already told you what happened." Fred said cheerfully.

"Yes." she said, glaring at him. "You are the biggest damn git that I've ever had the misfortune of knowing."

Fred shook his head. "Actually, that would be-"

"Shut up, Fred." Eva's voice was quiet, but something in it made Fred close his mouth.

"You have just broken my boyfriends nose. You attacked him. And you're smiling about it. You're proud of yourself."

Fred nodded. "I am."

Eva suddenly seemed about a thousand times more pissed off. I began to feel sorry for Fred. He was really just making things worse.

"You complete and utter arse. What in the hell is wrong with you?" she said.

"Nothing at all. I actually feel very good. I think that beating Warren up made-"

He never got to finish his sentence. Maybe Eva was reluctant to hit Fred where he was already bruised and bleeding, but she had no reservations about hurting him somewhere else. Somewhere else that was infinitely more painful. She raised her leg and kneed him between the legs. Fred dropped to the ground, clutching himself and moaning. I winced. Ouch.

"Goddamnit, Eva!" he groaned. "Hell! Bloody freaking hell!" On and on Fred went, swear after swear.

Eva turned to me. "Make sure I didn't hurt him too badly." she whispered.

I nodded, and she patted my arm, and went up the girls staircase with not even a glance back at Fred, who was rolling on the ground and clutching himself. He looked a bit ridiculous, but I didn't even crack a smile. There are some things that a guy just does not laugh at another guy for. Number one on that list is getting kicked between the legs.

After exhausting every curse word in his considerable repertoire, Fred finally pulled himself to a standing position.

"I hate her. I swear, I hate her." he muttered, wiping some blood away from his cut lip.

"No you don't." I said.

~*~Eva~*~

Boys are bloody morons.

Stupid, testosterone-fueled machines of idiocy that never seem to use their brains for anything. I mean, would it kill them to just stop and take a deep breath before pouncing on somebody and beating their face in?

Although, I suppose we girls aren't much better sometimes. Alicia officially hates me now, according to Angelina.

"Katie told her about you kneeing Fred and yelling at him. She called you a few things that I don't really want to repeat. " she said as we walked down to the common room.

"Ah. How nice." I said.

Alicia was in the common room with Fred and George. She glared at me as she gently touched Fred's bruised cheekbone.

"My poor Freddie." she said.

I bristled with anger, but refrained from making some snide comment. She was just letting her emotions cloud her judgment. Fred had attacked Warren, not the other way around.

But…_Her_ poor Freddie? Hers? Freddie was _my_ nickname for him, and it had been since our second year. Also, in my personal opinion, it sounded better when _I_ said it.

I joined them as they walked out the portrait hole and down to breakfast. Fred shot me a bitter glare, but George smiled cheerfully and said good morning. Okay, maybe _all_ boys aren't morons. George is probably the only exception.

I reluctantly left George and joined Warren during breakfast. He looked even worse than Fred did. I sat down between him and Anne. Warren glanced over at me, but he didn't say anything.

What the hell? Was everyone mad at me today?

"Warren, I'm sorry about what Fred did." I said, pouring a glass of orange juice for myself.

Warren shook his head as he drowned his pancakes in maple syrup. "He's a moron. Why do you even like him?"

"You know, you did antagonize him." I said. I was a bit surprised that I was defending Fred. He didn't really warrant my defensiveness, with the way he was acting.

Warren stopped chewing his pancakes and looked up at me. "_I_ antagonized _him?" _He said incredulously.

"You're actually taking his side?" Anne asked, raising her eyebrows at me. "Look at Warren!"

"I am." Does she think I'm blind or something? "You were both antagonizing each other. We'll leave it at that."

I leaned closer to him and whispered in his ear. "But Warren, please, you can't tell Umbridge about the D.A."

"I have to."

"No, you don't. You're just being paranoid, and forgetting the fact that we all have parents who will definitely stop us from getting killed."

He sighed. "I'll think about it."

Then Warren ignored me and went back to his breakfast. I sat there uncomfortably. Usually Warren would at least speak to me when I sat beside him, and even if he didn't, Martin, Anthony, or Anne would usually strike up a conversation. But Warren and Anne seemed annoyed that I wasn't siding with him, and Anthony and Martin weren't at breakfast.

Needless to say, I quickly returned to the Gryffindor table. Where I continued to be ignored by Fred and Alicia.

"You know, for not even being involved in the whole fight last night, people sure seem angry at me." I commented to George.

He didn't answer.

"George. Did you hear me?" I said.

His mouth twitched, but he still didn't answer, didn't give any sign he had heard me.

"Oh. I see. You're so funny, you know." I said sarcastically. I took the plate of bacon he had been eating, leaned across the table and dumped it onto Ron's plate.

"Hey! I was eating that." George said, giving me a resentful look.

I ignored him.


	10. Chapter 10

~*~Eva~*~

It was very uncomfortable around Fred and George for the next couple days. Fred stayed angry about who knows what, and I was annoyed at him for the obvious reasons. Besides, he was being a baby about the whole thing.

We spoke to each other in stiff, polite voices.

"Would you pass the shepherd's pie, Fred?"

"Yes. Here you go."

George spent his time trying to lighten the mood, but he needn't have bothered. Our fights never last very long anyhow.

I could have spent those days with Warren, but he had been acting strangely around me lately. When I wasn't sitting by him, he would stare at me, a slight frown on his face. So then I would go join him, and he wouldn't hardly talk to me. It was a struggle to get him to even look at me.

After spending a silent and awkward dinner with him, I had begun to guess at what was wrong with him. (It's just a guess, though. I'm not an incredible reader of people's thoughts and emotions) The way I figured it, Warren saw that my refusal to side with him meant I supported Fred in attacking Warren. He seemed to have conveniently forgotten that I refused to side with Fred, either.

He's a idiot, but I suppose that I can forgive him that.

{}[George]{}

"You're sure this won't explode on her or something?" Lee whispered.

I glanced across the Potions classroom to where Eva had approached Snape with a question about whatever we were supposed to be doing. I hadn't actually paid attention to what he was saying, but when he told us to begin preparing our potions, Lee, Fred, and I had snuck to Eva's abandoned cauldron, and promptly began tossing in ingredients. Her potion, which had previously been a light gold color, immediately turned sludgy and gray, and began giving off the smell of mothballs.

"It shouldn't." Fred said to Lee. He glanced momentarily at me, and I could see that he had no clue what he was doing.

So that made two of us.

We were just planning to ruin her potion. I mean, the girl is a Potions genius. If we let her continue on doing perfectly, she might get an ego again. An arrogant Eva is certainly not a pretty sight, as we had learned to our displeasure in our third year. It was for everyone's happiness and well-being that we brought her down a bit more to our level. Really, we were heroes.

We hurried back to our table before Eva, Snape, or anyone else could notice our little excursion across the classroom.

I began shuffling potion bottles and flipping pages in my book, so that we could look as if we were actually doing something. Fred and Lee followed my lead, and Fred began giving some nonsense lecture about the importance of using high-quality rat spleens in a potion. Lee nodded occasionally, making sounds of agreement, even though neither of them knew what the hell they were talking about.

I stifled a grin when Eva returned to her cauldron. She frowned as she stared inside, probably wondering what had happened to her pretty gold potion. But she obviously decided to ignore it, and with a small shrug, and a glance around the classroom, she grabbed a handful of beetle carapaces and dropped them into the cauldron.

Seconds passed, then there was a large explosion from Eva's cauldron, and purple fire rushed out of the cauldron that Eva had been staring into.

She shrieked, and everyone in the classroom turned to look at her as Snape hurried over. Her cauldron was melted, and it was still covered in the purple flame. But even more worrisome was the flames that were flickering in Eva's curly brown hair.

"I thought you said this wouldn't explode." I whispered to Fred as we watched Eva frantically try to beat the flames out of her hair.

"Actually, I said it _shouldn't_. There's a difference, you know." Fred said.

Snape finally pulled out his wand, shouted '_Augeumentai_!", then a large jet of water crashed over Eva's head, and the flame was finally put out.

"Miss Asher, do you care to explain how a student of your caliber managed to fail so abysmally in brewing this simple potion?" Snape said.

The smell of burnt hair was beginning to waft around the room, and the top of Eva's head was still smoking as she shook her head, though the rest of her was covered with water and dripping wet.

"No." she said. Then her eyes turned to where Fred, Lee, and I were seated, all three of us with slight smirks on our faces. "Although I do have some idea."

"Clean this mess up." Snape said, returning to the front of the room.

Eva glared at the three of us, silently mouthed some rather rude words, then proceeded cleaning up the ruined, twisted mass that had once been her cauldron.

~*~Eva~*~

A thing like that cannot go unpunished. Messing up my potion so that it exploded on me, while a fairly simple trick, was nonetheless effective. It's a bit scary to be caught on fire, you know.

I managed to save most of my hair, although some spots had been burned and charred, and needed to be cut. Thankfully, my hair still looked halfway normal once I got done.

As to my revenge, though… I decided to go with one of the oldest pranks known to mankind everywhere, wizards and Muggles alike. Sure, it was a bit lacking in originality, but there had to be a reason why it was used so often.

The next day, instead of going to breakfast with everyone else, I snuck up to the boys dorms and entered Fred, George, and Lee's room. I opened Lee's trunk first, and gingerly grabbed nearly all his underwear, Thank god Lee was neat. All of his underwear were stacked tidily in one section of his trunk. I shoved them into the bag I had brought with me.

Yes, yes, the panty-raid. I would have to do something more than just take them, though. But I would figure that out later.

George's trunk was next, and he, unfortunately, wasn't so neat. So I had to rummage around for what I was looking for. I hoped that all their things were clean, though I seriously doubted it. I mean, they were boys, after all. They probably just threw their dirty clothes, underwear and all, back in their trunk once they wore it, and didn't have their things washed till the end of the week.

I moved on to Fred's trunk and opened the latches.

Okay, Eva, don't pay attention to his underwear. Pretend you're just picking up… oddly shaped handkerchiefs. Yes, that's it. Oddly shaped handkerchiefs. But… Fred certainly had made interesting choices in his… handkerchief designs.

A couple were plain, or merely striped, but there was also one with four-leaf clovers, and there was one with the logo of Fred's favorite Quidditch team. One had a dragon across the back, even.

My face had heated up, but I was grinning widely at the contents of Fred's trunk. He would not be incredibly pleased when his four-leaf clover underwear were in the public eye. I finished stuffing the last of them into the bag, then hurried out of the dorms before I got caught playing around in their trunks.

That would certainly be a bit awkward.  
'Eva, why are you clutching our underwear?' They would ask.  
'Mind your own business.' I would reply.

I sat down in the common room and thought about what I would actually do with the underwear. I mean… I wasn't going to just carry them around all day. But it was already too late to hang them in the great hall, where everybody would see them at breakfast.

My eyes wandered over a pile of cardboard airplanes in the corner. They all had SPEW written on their sides in large black lettering. Spew? I vaguely remembered Hermione telling me about a club she called S.P.E.W. But why would she have a pile of airplanes laying around? My curiosity awoken, I ventured to the airplanes and picked one up.

I had barely touched it when it flew in the air and began soaring and swooping around the common room. So Hermione was advertising with cardboard airplanes… That gave me an idea.

I grabbed an airplane and a pair of underwear from the bag. If I could get these to hang from the airplanes, I could send long strings of underwear flying around the castle. That would be a great way to get the whole school to see them.

Brilliant.

There was no worry about whether the planes could hold so much weight. Luckily, they flew by magic and not simply floating on air. I eventually found a ball of wooly brown string laying around the common room, then set to work tying the underwear into several long chains. I ended up skipping breakfast, and all my classes in the first half of the day. But by the time I finished, I had nine airplanes, and nine chains of underwear. I waited until lunchtime to set the things loose, when the great hall would be filled with people again.

I'm sure I looked a sight, nearly running through the corridors, clutching underwear and cardboard in my arms. I certainly got quite a few strange looks from the few people I passed.

=+=Fred=+=

Despite currently pretending to still be angry with Eva, I allowed a bit of worry to show through to George.

"Where do you think she is?" I asked, glancing around the hall. I had expected her to show up for lunch, but so far she was nowhere to be found.

George wasn't paying attention to me, though. He was looking past me, a grin forming on his face. I turned around to see what looked like a small makeshift airplane flying into the Great Hall, trailing several pairs of some poor sod's underwear.

"Ah, how embarrassing would that be?" I asked George as we laughed at the spectacle. "To have all…." I trailed off as another eight airplanes flew into the hall. At the very end of one of them, I saw a pair with a familiar looking red-scaled dragon printed on them.

Oh. Crap.

George and Lee had stopped laughing, and now they were staring intently at the planes. The Great Hall was roaring with laughter by now, and several students were pointing at the planes as they soared over the tables.

"Are those… ours?" Lee said quietly.

George nodded.

Eva strolled into the Great Hall just then, and made her way to where we sat staring at the planes. She sat down across from me and smirked at the three of us.

"Fred, I have to admit, I'm curious about something." she said.

I glared at her. She seemed to take that as a sign I wanted her to continue.

"You have several very… interestingly designed underwear. What kind are you wearing right now?"

George snickered, but Lee's eyes were still fixed on the underwear planes, which were now doing loops and twirls in the sky, and getting dangerously close to the tops of people's heads.

"I'm not going to answer that." I said.I managed to make my voice sound suitably annoyed with her, but I'm afraid my cheerful expression gave away my happiness that we were finally speaking civilly again.

"Please? I'll never ask for anything again." Eva said, leaning across the table. "Go ahead, whisper it."

"No."

"If you don't, I will tell everybody who those lovely underwear belong to."We eyed each other, then finally I sighed and mumbled my answer.

She frowned quizzically and tilted her head to the side. "What? I didn't hear you."I glanced around, but nobody was near besides George and Lee, who were now discussing the best way to get their underwear out of the public eye.

"They've got little chocolate frogs on them. And Bertie-Bott's Every-Flavor-Beans." I whispered. "There. Happy?"

Eva's face lit up. "That's very cute, you know. I can picture you in… never mind." She broke off hastily, her face turning pink, and her lips pressing together slightly, like they always did when she got embarrassed.

"Go ahead. Finish your sentence." I said, directing a leer toward her. I had to torment her a bit, after all, even though I was fairly proud of her for even playing this trick on us.

She shook her head, then grabbed my plate and began eating my food.

And just like that, we were friends once more.

~*~Eva~*~

Everyone in Hogwarts became more cheerful as Christmas approached.

Decorations were put up all throughout the castle, and even Peeves was celebrating the holiday, zooming around the castle singing lewd Christmas carols and wrapping shining tinsel around the legs of students.

The Gryffindor common room had been strung with Christmas baubles, and twinkling lights, and several sprigs of mistletoe were hung from the ceiling, which most students took great pains to avoid.

"I hope Mum doesn't knit me a maroon jumper again. Everybody else gets a good color, but me…" Ron said as he and Harry worked on homework at a table in the corner.

The twins and I were sitting nearby at the fireplace, and we heard Ron's complaint.

"Oh, that reminds me." George said, "Mum's knitting you a jumper this year, Eva, and-"

"Really?" I said happily, looking up at him. "That's so-"

"Nice, sweet, motherly. Yes, we know." Fred said from beside me on the sofa.

"I'm supposed to find out exactly what color your eyes are. Mum wants to knit a jumper to match." George said. "I told her grayish-blue, but she wants to know details. She had Ron doing the same thing to Harry, so that she could knit him a jumper in the same color his eyes are."

"It was a bit strange, actually." Fred said, smiling. "To see Ron staring at Harry for the longest time, then writing something down and sending it off."

"So, let me see your eyes, and-" George said.

Fred shook his head. "Don't bother." he said. "Her eyes are more gray than blue. They're light, like a cloudy day, except that you can just barely see the blue sky behind the clouds. And sometimes, when she gets…" He trailed off. The tips of his ears and nose had turned slightly red.

I just stared at him, but Fred sent a desperate look at George.

George cleared his throat. "Right, so… I'll just write down all that Mister Poetic here said, and send an owl off to mum…"Fred nodded. He seemed determined to avoid looking at me.

"Okay." he said.

"Okay." I said awkwardly. My face was warm. I was blushing. Why was _I _blushing?

"Okay, then." George said.

...

I got a letter from my family at breakfast a week before the start of the Christmas holiday.

_Evanna,_

_Your father has won an award at work for his excellent quality of work. We have been invited to attend an award ceremony in the British Isles on the first week you are scheduled to come home. The company will only pay the fare for four members of the family to attend, and Asha has expressed her desire to accompany us. Your father and I talked it over, and we have decided that it would be best if you stayed at school for Christmas, while we, Elliot, and Asha attend the ceremony. We apologize if you are disappointed, Evanna, but this will be a wonderful experience for us, and your father has worked so hard. If you are displeased with us, I understand, but do try to have a nice time in Hogwarts for the holiday._

_We are looking forward to seeing you again at the end of the school term.  
Y__our father says hello, and Elliot wishes me to tell you that he recently lost two teeth when he fell out of your tree house in the backyard. __Really, dear, you shouldn't be encouraging his wild behavior._

_-Love Mum_

My face fell as I read the letter. I had been looking forward to being with my family again.

"What is it?" asked George.

"I'm going to be stuck at Hogwarts for the holiday." I said, throwing the letter down on the table. Fred leaned over and grabbed the letter, then began reading it in between bites of cereal.

"It doesn't matter." He said airily once he had finished the letter. "George and I were going to forge a letter to your parents telling them you weren't coming home anyway."

George nodded at me. "It's true. We had it all written out and everything."

"But since your mum and dad don't want you for Christmas after all…""We don't have to bother with our letter. You're spending the holiday with us, at the Burrow."

I beamed at them as I folded the letter up. "Does your mum know I'm coming?"

"She will when you get off the train with us." Fred said.

"And she's too nice to just leave you there in the station with nowhere to go." George said with a grin.

I couldn't decide whether or not they were serious, so I just grinned and kissed them both on the cheek.

We had our last D.A meeting before the start of the holiday. George, unfortunately, couldn't join us, as he was serving detentions with Filch for dropping Dungbombs into the pipes and spreading the smell across the whole school.

The Room of Requirement was already filled with people when we walked in.

"OK," Harry said, calling us all to order. "I thought this evening we should just go over the things we've done so far, because it's the last meeting before the holidays and there's no point starting anything new right before a three-week break "

"We're not doing anything new?" said Zacharias Smith, in a disgruntled whisper that carried across the room. "If I'd known that, I wouldn't have come."

"We're all really sorry Harry didn't tell you, then," said Fred loudly. I sniggered, along with several other people in the room. Fred smiled over at me and grabbed my hand, despite the presence of Alicia across the room with Angelina.

I wondered just what he was playing at, but I didn't let go.

"-we can practise in pairs," Harry was saying "We'll start with the Impediment Jinx, for ten minutes, then we can get out the cushions and try Stunning again."

Everybody divided up and began practicing, and the meeting went by quickly. Harry soon called everyone to a halt.

"You're getting really good," he said, beaming around at us. "When we get back from the holidays we can start doing some of the big stuff - maybe even Patronuses."

Everyone started leaving the room, after wishing each other merry Christmas. Alicia waved Fred over to talk with her a moment, and I watched Cho and Harry while I waited for Fred.

It was so cute. Harry would look over at Cho, then look down, and she would glance up at him. And they were both deliberately stalling, waiting until the room cleared out. I looked up to the ceiling, where a strand of mistletoe was hung by the door.

I pulled out my wand and made the mistletoe move over to above where Cho was standing. She looked up at it, then over at me. I winked and looked pointedly at Harry. Cho gave me a strange look, then Fred threw an arm around my shoulders and was leading me out of the room.

"Harry and Cho are going to kiss." I said happily as we walked along, feeling like I was a regular little Cupid, shooting my magical arrows and making people fall in love.

Fred seemed amused. "Why do you say that?"

"They obviously like each other. I bet that Harry will come in to the common room later, stunned and smiling. They'll kiss."

"You're on, Asher."

"Prepare to lose, Weasley."

… … … …

We sat on a sofa in the common room, waiting for Harry to walk through the portrait hole. I had curled up beside Fred, and kept dozing off on his chest. He wouldn't let me sleep, though, and kept pulling my hair, or blowing in my ear.

"There he is." he said quietly, poking me sharply in the side to wake me up. I turned around and we watched as Harry stumbled through the portrait hole. Hermione and Ron were still up, and they both looked at Harry as he sat down by them.

They talked quietly a moment, then Hermione's voice carried across the common room. "Did you kiss?"

Harry said something, then a moment later, Ron jumped up, grinning broadly. "Ha!" he yelled.

I lay back against Fred. "I told you they would kiss. I win." I declared with a grin.

"Maybe. But you don't win anything."

The grin slipped off my face.

"Wait. Why? I should get money, or candy or something."

Fred shook his head. "You should have said that before we shook hands and made the bet official. You never made sure that I bet anything."

Double damn.

I decided to pout about it. Because even if it never solved anything, it could be great fun. I crossed my arms across my chest and looked away from Fred.

"Are you…. You're pouting, aren't you?"

I didn't answer.

"You are." he said.

I still didn't answer.

"You're a spoiled brat, Eva."

"And you're a cheating git." I said.

"Oh, you don't mean it."

"Yes I do."

"No, you love me." Fred said matter-of-factly.

"I don't." "You said I was good-looking."

"And you said my moustache was handsome. It didn't mean anything."

"I swear, Eva, I really do think your moustache is attractive."

I looked at him, giving him my 'I can't believe you're actually saying that' face.

He laughed, and I elbowed him in the stomach.

"Stop laughing. This is serious business." I said.

"Yes sir." He said gravely, nodding at me.

"Shut up, Fred."

"You know, that's rather rude."

"That's it." I said., throwing my hands in the air. "I'm not coming to the Burrow for the holiday. I'll just stay at Hogwarts."

Fred flung his arm around me and pulled me beside him again.

"You'd miss me." he said.

"I'd celebrate to be away from you."

He looked over at me and smiled. "You wouldn't celebrate to be away from me and George."

I sighed. "No. I'd kinda miss you two. Just a little bit, mind you."

"And you do love me."I grimaced, but hugged him all the same. "You know I love you, Freddie."

"Love you too, Eva. You're still not getting anything from the bet, though."

I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. A boy was standing there. "Dumbledore wants you in his office."

I sighed and stood up. Just when my day had been going so great.

"See you later, love." Fred said, stressing the 'love' part.

"Night, Fred."

It was some pudgy older man from the Order who was there tonight.

He had a whole bag of objects for me to use to See. Some of the things weren't even from Death Eaters, just regular people that the Order suspected were working with Voldemort. I had to appluad the Order for their skill at petty thievery; it couldn't be easy to steal a floral print scarf, or an old picture frame from somebody's home.

But I swear, I was there Seeing for at least two hours.

Then McGonagall stepped into the office, followed by Ron and Harry, both in their pyjamas and looking nervous and more than a little bit scared.

I listened as Harry explained about a dream he had had about a snake attacking Mr. Weasley. Dumbledore listened attentively, then told McGonagall to go wake the other Weasley children. He started talking to one of the portraits in his office, and then to his phoenix.

I had scooted my chair away to the side of the room, and my stomach clenched while I listened to Harry's story. Poor, poor Mr. Weasley…

Fred, George, and Ginny were brought into the office, where Dumbledore explained to them what was going on.

"How're we going?" asked Fred, looking shaken. "Floo powder?"

"No," said Dumbledore, "Floo powder is not safe at the moment, the Network is being watched. You will be taking a Portkey." He indicated the old kettle lying innocently on his desk. 'We are just waiting for Phineas Nigellus to report back… I want to be sure that the coast is clear before sending you."

There was a flash of flame in the very middle of the office, leaving behind a single golden feather that floated gently to the floor.

"It is Fawkes's warning," said Dumbledore, catching the feather as it fell. "Professor Umbridge must know you're out of your beds… Minerva, go and head her off-tell her any story."

Professor McGonagall was gone in a swish of tartan.

"He says he'll be delighted," said a bored voice behind Dumbledore; the wizard called Phineas had reappeared in front of his Slytherin banner. "My great-great-grandson has always had an odd taste in house-guests."

"Come here, then," Dumbledore said to Harry and the Weasley's. "And quickly, before anyone else joins us."

Harry and the others gathered around Dumbledore's desk.

"You have all used a Portkey before?" asked Dumbledore, and they nodded, each reaching out to touch some part of the blackened kettle. "Good. On the count of three, then… one… two…"

Fred and George glanced over at me, their faces pale and scared.

I wished I could offer any kind of consolation, but all I could do was look helplessly back at them.

"Three." Dumbledore said, and they were all spinning and then they disappeared.

… … … …

I was sent back to bed soon after that. Dumbledore knew that I was supposed to be staying with the Weasley's over the holiday. He said that if Mr. Weasley survived, I would be sent with them.

I didn't like the sound of that. 'If' he survived.

I returned to my bed and curled up in the blankets, but I couldn't get to sleep.

At about eight, I went down to the Great Hall, where people were chatting and laughing, eager for the Christmas Holiday to begin. I ate something, I'm not sure what, exactly. Oatmeal, I think. I don't even like oatmeal.

Warren seemed to notice my distracted, sullen mood when I met him for lunch, but he didn't ask what was the matter, merely kissed my cheek and told me to have a good holiday.

The day passed slowly, but finally my last class was over, and I headed to Dumbledore's office.

"Fizzing Whizbee" I said to the stone gargoyles, who had both had had a festive Santa hat placed upon their heads.

They moved aside and I stepped into Dumbledore's office. He was at his desk, fiddling with one of the strange devices that were all over the shelves and tables.

"Ah, Ms. Asher. I assume you are here about the wellbeing of Mr. Weasley." he said with a small smile.

I nodded and sat down. Surely that smile meant that Mr. Weasley was alive.

Either that, or Dumbledore had a _very _morbid sense of humor.

"I am pleased to say that he is going to live, though it was rather close for a couple of hours." A wide grin split my face and Dumbledore continued. "I have spoken to Mrs. Weasley, and she has said that you will be staying at Grimmauld Place, instead of the Burrow. Also, I believe Ms. Granger will be joining you on your way to London."

… … ….

**(Okay, that's the end of this chapter…**

**Please review, it means a whole lot to me!**

**_XX_**


	11. Chapter 11

(I don't like this chapter very much... thanks to every single person who reviewed or added this story to their alerts or favorites! You guys are awesome!)

...

~*~Eva~*~

Everyone was busy cleaning up Grimmauld Place when Hermione and I stepped inside. Sirius was shoving the curtain back over that screaming portrait of his mum, and he grinned at us.

Ginny and Ron came down the steps, their faces dirty and their clothes dusty. Ginny's fiery red hair was tied back with a ponytail, and Ron had what looked like throw-up all over the front of his shirt.

Hermione stopped to talk to them, saying something about Harry hiding up in his room, then she ran upstairs. I headed down the hall. Fred and George were digging things out of drawers and throwing them into a large sack.

I snuck up quietly behind George, then jumped onto his back like some sort of monkey. He dropped the large rusted cup he was holding and started flailing around. I put my hands over his eyes and we started bumping into stuff, including Fred. He waited until George had spun back around, and then jumped onto my back. George's knees buckled under the combined weight of Fred and I, and we all fell to the floor.

"Great, Fred." said George, once we had untangled ourselves. "She found out where we were staying."

"Now where do we go? We ran here, hoping she wouldn't know where we were, but…"

"You two can run all you like. I'll find you." I gave them a serious look. "There's no getting rid of me. I'm like a fungus or something."

Then they seemed to think that tickling me would be an enjoyable greeting in retaliation for my own, and George held me down and Fred ran his fingers lightly over my stomach, making me burst out in giggles. "Stop!" I gasped. "Please, stop!"

Mrs. Weasley stuck her head through the door. "Hello, Eva dear." she said. "I suppose Hermione's made it here also?"

I nodded, and managed to get out a "Upstairs." through fits of laughter.

Fred had pulled up my shirt a bit and was now blowing raspberries on my stomach, like I was a little baby.

"Fred Weasley, get your mouth off of her this instant." Mrs. Weasley said sternly. Fred grinned at us both, but sat back.

"Thank you." I told her as George let go of me and I struggled to my feet.

"Anytime, dear." she said, turning away.

"So how was your day all alone-" said Fred.

"Without us?" George said, finishing Fred's sentence.

"Great, to be honest." I said. "I get a bit tired of you both, you know."

They merely grinned at my blatant lie, and we all knew it was far from the truth.

=+=Fred=+=

Eva woke George and I up early the day after she had arrived at Grimmauld Place.

"Wake up, I just got a brilliant idea!" she yelled, jumping on top of me and ruffling my hair.

George mumbled something from his bed across the room.

"Eva…" I groaned, my eyes still closed. "An idea, no matter how brilliant, is worth being up this early in the morning."

"Well, Kreacher woke me and Ginny up at dawn, creeping around our room and taking out all the old pictures and stuff. It creeped me out and I couldn't go back to sleep."

She was still sitting on me. I felt her lean down and lift my eyelids up. She grinned. "You're already awake, you may as well hear me out."

"Will you leave me alone if I listen?" I said, pushing her hands away from me.

"Of course." She sounded offended, as if the very idea of her bothering me was preposterous.I sat up and rubbed my eyes. "Okay, let's hear it." I said. "George, you still awake?"

George grunted, so I nodded to Eva. "Go ahead."

She grinned excitedly and leaned up so that she kneeled on her knees.

"It involves Snape." she said as she raised her hands up and began smoothing down my hair that she had mussed up only a minute earlier.

"I was lying awake, and I thought 'oh, I wonder what good old Professor Snape will get for Christmas this year'. So then I was trying to figure out what he would put at the top of his Christmas list. I was just curious, you see. Well, it turned out to be fairly obvious."She smiled and folded her hands in her lap. "What is the one thing Snape desperately needs, but seems to never have enough of?"

I grinned at her. "Shampoo."

"Exactly!" she cried. "We just have to send him some. Imagine his face when he opens it…"

… … … …

Of course, Eva didn't keep to her promise to leave me alone if I listened to her. She insisted that I get out of bed and help her find an unopened bottle of shampoo somewhere in the house. George had long since fallen asleep. I envied him, honestly. Oh, to be warm in my bed right now…

"This is floral-scented." Eva said, reading from the label of a shampoo bottle. She handed it to me. "Plus, it adds volume and shine." She said happily.

"Ah, an added bonus." I said.

We wrapped it up in a small box, and then Eva dragged me off on another raid of the house; this time for a green bow. Not blue, not red. Green.

"Because green is for Slytherin." she explained. "Snape would like a green bow best, don't you think?"

We also found an ancient box of dog biscuits shoved up in a cupboard in the attic. So Eva and I wrapped that up and stuck it under the tree for Sirius.

And we even put a nice red bow on top.

… … … …

Eva was like that the rest of the day, cheerful and energetic. It was as if waking up so early had put her in a permanent state of hyper activeness.

A couple hours after lunch, though, she crashed, and trudged upstairs. Instead of going to her own room, she flopped down in my bed, wiggled under the covers, and was asleep in minutes.

George and I spent a couple hours playing a game of Apparition tag, which is an excellent way to quickly annoy all of your housemates. Mum finally got tired of it and sent us upstairs sometime past six o'clock.

Eva was still fast asleep in my bed. She kept muttering things, and George and I must have woke her up with our snickering, because she sat up.

Her hair was poofed out and tangled around her face, and she stared bleary-eyed at us for nearly half a minute. Finally she frowned and looked around the room.

"Oh. Sorry, Fred." she said, throwing her legs over the side of my bed and standing up. "You can have your bed back now."

... ... ...

The past couple months have turned out to be a waste of time.

All my progress was undone when I lay down in my bed that night and realized that my bed smelled like lavender. I had been close, so close to forgetting about Eva, but for some reason, the fact that my pillow and blankets smelled like her brought all the feeling back in full force.

I was head over heels again.

Don't get me wrong, Alicia is great. And if I wasn't so hung up on Eva, I think Alicia and I would be near perfect for each other...I guess that dating Alicia was a bad idea in the first place. Because now, I would be stuck with the miserable task of breaking up with her. She would be pissed at me, and she would probably demand to know why.

She would ask what she had done to mess things up. What could I say to her? 'Okay, Alicia, I'm dumping you because, quite simply, you're just not Eva' I was going to sound like such an arse. A stupid arse, no less. Because what sane man would break up with his girlfriend because she wasn't another girl, another girl who just happened to be dating another guy?

Regardless, once I had made up my mind to end things between Alicia and I, I felt strangely free. Liberated.

Which was fairly ridiculous, really. I wouldn't be truly free until I stopped pining over a certain special girl with curly brown hair and blue-gray eyes. And I didn't see that happening anytime soon.

The next morning, I thought that I would go ahead and break up with Alicia, get it over with. That way, I could at least avoid her tears and the inevitable slap I would receive. I cheerfully dug around in my trunk and found some parchment. I grabbed a quill from the top, pressed it to the paper, and was squirted with a foul-tasting stream of ink.

Dammit. I had forgotten about the Trick Fountain Quill prototypes I had stored in my trunk.

Just to be sure I didn't get sprayed with ink again, I snuck into Hermione's room, broke into her trunk and took a rather majestic looking eagle feather quill. She had plenty of quills, surely she wouldn't miss just one.

Now… how to go about breaking up with Alicia? I should try to sound sensitive and thoughtful, I suppose. With that thought, I dipped the quill in ink and began to write.

_Alicia,  
__I've been doing a good deal of thinking in the three days since term ended, and I've decided that we should probably start dating other people.  
__Sorry to tell you this in a letter and all, but it's best to get it over with, right?  
__Merry Christmas.  
__-Fred_

_P.S.- Thank you for the gift you sent. Can't wait to open it and see what it is!_

There. I read over the letter again, grinning. That sounded nice, right? Hopefully it didn't make me sound too big of a git.

"You sound like a git." George said from my shoulder.

I jumped, and nearly stabbed the quill backwards into George's eye. "You need to cough, or make some noise or something." I said reproachfully.

"I've been here since you first started writing it." he said. "I hope you wanted to get Alicia raving mad at you, because that's all this letter is going to do. Like I said, you sound like a git."

"No I don't. I even said I was sorry." I stood up and folded the letter into an envelope.

"Whatever you say, mate." He grinned. "Just don't be surprised when she tries to murder you once we get back to Hogwarts."

I sent the letter off with sickly old Errol., satisfaction coursing through me.

It was done. Now, I didn't even have to feel guilty when I hugged Eva or held her hand, or let her fall asleep on me on the sofa. I was a free man once more.

~*~Eva~*~

I swear, Mrs. Weasley is trying to make me fat.

She kept baking food and sweets in the days leading up to Christmas, and bringing them in to all of us, insisting we eat more and more.

"Another bacon sandwich, dear? I know you and Ron love those." or "Would anyone like some biscuits?"

On Christmas Eve, we all sat in the living room, listening to the radio and playing card games.

Another song by some wailing witch came on, and Mrs. Weasley smiled.

"This is a beautiful song, don't you all think so?"

Everyone nodded, agreeing with her, but on the high notes in the song, everybody would just sort of grimace and exchange a painful glance with whomever they happened to be sitting by.

Fred kept playing with my hair, trying unsuccessfully to braid it.

"How do women do it?" he grumbled, after tangling my hair into a knot for the third time.

"We use a form of dark magic. Men are forbidden to learn it."

"I knew it." he said savagely, finally abandoning his attempts.

We were silent for a moment, then he smiled at me and wrapped his arm around mine.

"So what did you get me for Christmas?" he asked

"Can't tell you. And it's a shared present, for you and George."

I had just gotten them a ton of candy and joke stuff. I was planning on eating half the candy, though, so they'll really just be getting joke stuff, which they already have in abundance. I had wanted to find some spectacular gift for them; things just didn't work out that way.

"I'll tell you what George and I got for you." he said, leaning against me.

"No, you won't." interrupted George from the other end of the sofa.

"Let me guess: stuff from Zonko's?" I said. They got me the same thing nearly every year.

Fred looked disappointed. "You snuck into our room and opened our trunk, didn't you?"

"It wasn't hard to figure out."

He grabbed my hand and squeezed it. "I still think you peeked."

"I still think I didn't."

"See, now you're lying to me. I thought you loved me!"

"I do, Fred."

"Then prove it." He said, grinning.

"I already said I'm not telling you what I got you." I rolled my eyes. He could be so persistent sometimes.

"That's not what I meant."I stared at him as he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"What?"

"You know what."

"No, Fred Weasley, I'm sure that I do not, in fact, know."

"You should prove you love me by kissing me. On the cheek, at least. That can be like an early present or something."

"No."

"You wound me." He said in a hurt voice.

"I don't care."

"How about if I cry? Then would you?" He gave me a pitiful expression, and he reminded me so much of a small child begging their mother for sweets.

"No, Fred. I won't kiss you." I said.

"Don't you like me?"

"That's it. I'm going to bed." Only Mrs. Weasley, George, and Sirius were still up. I pushed Fred away from me and stood up from the sofa.

"Please?" Fred said.

"Good night, Fred."

He dove off the sofa and wrapped his arms around my leg.

"Fred, what are you doing?" asked Mrs. Weasley. She obviously hadn't heard our conversation.

"Nothing, mum. Go back to your knitting." Fred said with a grin.

"Let go of me." I grumbled as I attempted to pull my leg out of his grasp.

It was no use. He had wrapped his arms and legs around my leg, and there was no way I would be able to move an inch.

"I won't let go until you do it." he said in a sing-song voice.

"You're a git." I said irritably, stretching my arm out to where I had sat my wand earlier in the day. My fingertips fell just short of reaching it.

"Won't let her go until she does what?" Sirius asked, looking slightly amused.

"Until she proves she loves him." George said.

"Fred…" Mrs. Weasley sighed. "Let the poor girl go."

"No can do, Mum. If she doesn't prove it, I'll go to bed weeping and brokenhearted."

"You wouldn't want that on your conscience, would you, Eva?" George asked me.

"You'd feel terribly guilty, you know." Sirius added. I glared over at him, but he just smiled.

"I swear, you boys behave as if you're children." said Mrs. Weasley.

"Thank you. I'm glad someone sees their immaturity." I said to her.

"Well, the fact remains, you have to kiss me before I'll let you go. On the cheek. I'll settle for that." Fred said in a sing-song voice.

I sighed, realizing that if I wanted to get to bed any time soon, I would have to do it.

I leaned down and glanced over at Mrs. Weasley, hoping she would order Fred to let me go upstairs, but she just watched us with a funny expression on her face.

I kissed Fred softly on his cheek, then quickly leaned back up.

"Okay, you have to let me go now."

Fred was smiling at me. "See, was that so hard?"

I frowned at him, then turned and left the room.

"Night, Eva!" called George.

"G'night, Georgie!"

"Love you!" Fred said.

I sighed. "Love you too, Fred."

As I climbed the stairs to the room Ginny and I shared, I heard George say, "Fred, you're grinning like an idiot."

And I could not help but smile.

... ... ...

"Wake up!" Ginny squealed in my ear, then she climbed onto the bed and pushed me off.

I lay on the floor, a grimace on my face. "I was awake when you shrieked in my ear, you know."

She grinned at me, poking her head over the edge of the bed. "Yes, but you wouldn't have gotten out of bed for another half hour."

"Of course not." I muttered, getting to my feet and stretching. "It's unnatural for anyone to be up early on Christmas day."

At my house, I always tried to sleep in on Christmas until at least ten. That is, if my little brother didn't tackle me and rip the blankets off me, screaming stuff about gifts. Which he usually did.

Ginny and I quickly dug into our presents. I had gotten the usual jumper from Mrs. Weasley. It was nearly the same blue-grey colour of my eyes, if a tad darker. The twins had gotten me joke stuff, like I had expected. My parents had sent me a new soft wool scarf and a large box of assorted sweets. From Asha, a book about the history of Seeing, from Liam I got a small book of famous paintings and Elliot had made a popsicle stick picture frame, smeared shiny gold paint on it, and glued in a picture taken a couple years ago of me and him having a tea party with all of our favorite toys in attendance. Hermione had gotten me a present, which was slightly unexpected, but it was a book about House Elf Oppression in Britain. Warren sent me a small silver bracelet with my name engraved on it.

All in all, not the best Christmas haul, but I didn't really care. Although I did have to wonder what was with everybody giving me books.

Ginny and I dressed and went down to breakfast, where everybody was thanking each other for their gifts. Molly crushed me into a hug before I sat down at the table.

"Merry Christmas, dear." she said. "Thank you for the gift."I had gotten her a book called '_Wonderful Witches: Shortcuts To Help Our Favorite Magical Mums Keep Looking Marvelous'._

"You don't need it, really, Mrs. Weasley," (A little bit of flattery never hurt anyone.) "but my mum always says a woman just likes to feel beautiful now and again. She suggested it, actually."

"Well then, you'll have to thank your mother for me."

... ... ...

After breakfast we all piled into a car and drove to St. Mungo's, where we met Bill and Charlie.

"Okay, everyone in." said Molly, looking doubtfully at the tiny elevator that was to carry us up Mr. Weasley's ward

Ron, Harry, and Hermione stepped in first, followed by me and Molly. Fred, George, Bill, and Charlie brought up the rear.

Bill and Charlie struggled to pull the door closed, receiving many complaints and a "Hey, stop elbowing me." from George, and a "You're stepping on my feet." from Harry, who was squished against the wall.

Once we were all crammed in, Molly had to move around to reach the button, pushing Fred and George in the spot she had occupied.

"Okay , fifth floor." she said as she pressed the button and the elevator began to move agonizingly slowly. With all the things magic could do, someone should have made a way for these elevators to move a bit quicker.

Everybody was quiet, then Ron said "Well, it's a bit crowded in here."

"Way to state the obvious, Ron." I said.

There was a slight thump, then Mrs. Weasley said, "Oh dear, I just dropped my bag. Could you move aside a bit, Hermione?"

Hermione scooted over into me, cramming me against Fred. "Sorry." I said to him, after spitting out a mouthful of Hermione's hair.

"It's alright. I like it." He smirked. "I like it very much, in fact."

"Oh, Fred, stop trying to embarrass the girl." said Mrs. Weasley with an exasperated sigh.

I smiled. "It's alright. He's not succeeding anyway."

God, I've become such a liar lately.

... ... ...

Mr. Weasley had just finished opening his gifts, and thanked us cheerfully when we filed into his room.

Then Mrs. Weasley started yelling at him because he had gotten stitches, which I guess is where a cut is sewn up, like you would do to a shirt or pair of trousers or something. Muggles are actually fairly ingenious in doing things without magic.

Mr. Weasley tried to explain, but Mrs. Weasley made a strange noise that reminded me of the way a cat yowled just before it attacked.

Bill and Charlie muttered something about getting themselves a cup of tea and Fred and George leapt up to accompany them, grinning. Fred grabbed my hand, whispering, "You don't want to be here when she starts yelling at him. Trust me."

... ... ...

"So have you ever ridden a dragon?" I asked Charlie curiously as we sat in the hospital cafeteria, sipping cups of tea.

Charlie grinned. "No. But my friend has."

"Cool."

I now knew what I wanted to do when I got out of Hogwarts.  
I was going to ride dragons for a living.

"She has that look on her face, George." Fred nudged his twin.

"Don't tell us you want to tame dragons now, Eva."

Their voices yanked me out of a pleasant daydream where I had been wearing a leather outfit, riding a huge red dragon and doing twirls in the sky.

"Of course not." I snapped defensively.

"Because you're afraid of heights, remember. You'd get up high, faint, and fall off." Fred said.

"Ah, don't crush her dreams, Fred." said Bill.

I looked at Bill out of the corner of my eye. He had ignored Mrs. Weasley's protests, and continued to grow his hair out. Now he had it tied back in a sleek, shiny ponytail.

"I like your ponytail." I said after a bit.

"Mum doesn't." he said with a grin. "I think she likes it even less than me leaving my hair loose. Says that a ponytail is a girl hairstyle."

Mrs. Weasley came to get us a bit after that, and we visited with Mr. Weasley a few more minutes, then we all piled back into a couple of taxis and headed back to Grimmauld Place.

=+=Fred=+=

So, Eva liked ponytails, did she?

I sat on my bed later that evening, and began trying to pull my hair back into a ponytail. If only it was just a bit longer…

"Fred…what are you doing?" Eva said from the door. She was staring at me, her head tilted to the side.

"Oh…" I dropped the small amount of hair I had managed to gather at the back of my head. "Nothing."

"Er… alright. It's time for dinner." she said. "I'll race you down."

I Apparated downstairs, much to mum's displeasure.

"You have feet, Fred! Use them!" she snapped, before turning back to the stove.

Eva dashed into the room, breathing quickly. She grinned, but then she saw me leaning back in a chair and smirking at her.

"You're a cheating git." she muttered.

"And you should learn Apparition."

Everybody else came down and joined us at the long table a few minutes later.

"This looks delicious, Molly." Sirius said as the food was laid out.

Mum had cooked a large honey glazed ham for Christmas dinner, plus about a dozen other dishes. She insisted that we all eat at least two plates piled high with food, and even Ron, who never seemed to stop eating, looked slightly sick to his stomach once mum finally began clearing up the dishes.

Eva decided that she would go through mine and George's presents after dinner. George was laying in his bed, clutching his stomach, but I had to lay down in the floor as Eva had piled out presents on my bed and was inspecting each one.

"You two will look so cute in these little matching jumpers your mum made." she said cheerfully, holding George's dark blue jumper in the air. I had one exactly like it.

"We always look cute." George said.

"True." Eva admitted, throwing the jumpers aside.

As I lay down to bed later that night, I could not help but feel this had been a most excellent Christmas holiday.

Okay... please review, I would much appreciate it!


	12. Chapter 12

I apologize ahead of time for the sweet cheesiness near the end, but I couldn't help myself, and I also apologize for Eva's sheer density… Anyway, thanks for reading so far, and please review, I appreciate it so much! Reviews are love… :D

~*~Eva~*~

The rest of the Christmas Holiday passed far too quickly, and before I knew it, we were stepping back into the Gryffindor common room again. At dinner that evening, whispers were going around the Great Hall about Azkaban.

"What are they talking about?" I asked Fred as he sat beside me.

"Hang on." he reached across the table and yanked a copy of the Daily Prophet out of Ron's hands.

"Oi! I was reading that!" Ron protested.

"Yes, you were. And now you're not." said Fred as he handed it to me.

I smiled apologetically at Ron, then opened the Daily Prophet. There, on the first page, was the article that had everyone so worked up. Fred and George looked over at me as I began to read it aloud.

"_MASS BREAKOUT FROM AZKABAN _

_MINISTRY FEARS BLACK IS 'RALLYING POINT'_

_FOR OLD DEATH EATERS_

_The Ministry of Magic announced late last night that there has been a mass breakout from Azkaban._

_Speaking to reporters in his private office, Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic, confirmed that ten high-security prisoners escaped in the early hours of yesterday evening and that he has already informed the Muggle Prime Minister of the dangerous nature of these individuals._

_'We find ourselves, most unfortunately, in the same position we were two and a half years ago when the murderer Sirius Black escaped,' said Fudge last night. 'Nor do we think the two breakouts are unrelated. An escape of this magnitude suggests outside help, and we must remember that Black, as the first person ever to break out of Azkaban, would be ideally placed to help others follow in his footsteps. We think it likely that these individuals, who include Black's cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, have rallied around Black as their leader. We are, however, doing all we can to round up the criminals, and we beg the magical community to remain alert and cautious. On no account should any of these individuals be approached."_

"This can't be good." said Lee from the other side of George.

George snorted. "That's gotta be the understatement of the century, mate."

So that was it, then. More Death Eaters were out, and they would be rejoining with Voldemort. That would almost certainly mean more Seeing work for me, but it would also mean that war was now an absolute certainty. Because now, he had even more followers. I knew that I wouldn't be getting too much sleep starting now.  
... ... ... ...

"What's Alicia's problem?" I asked Fred as he sat down beside me at dinner.

I had said hello to her earlier, and asked how her holiday had been. She had glared at me, then turned away and walked off.

"Alicia?" Fred asked, glancing over at her. "Oh… she's been acting funny ever since I broke up with her."

Those words, said so casually, sent a strange happiness coursing through me.

"When did you dump her?" I asked, forcing back the unintentional smile that had appeared on my face.

There was no reason I should be so pleased… It was probably just because I didn't like Alicia much. Yes, that was it. That's why I was happy Fred was dumping her. Nothing suspicious about that, certainly.

"Over the holiday." he said, sliding a large piece of pie onto his plate and looking sideways at me.

"Oh."

I didn't say anything more about the matter, but the next time the twins and I passed her, I sent a smirk in her direction. Petty, I know, but I couldn't resist. And it only served to make her dislike me even more, as if she needed any help with that.

... ... ... ...

I may have made a big mistake. I _did_ make a big mistake.

A huge one.

Warren and I had finally made up over the fighting incident, and we spent all of that next Sunday together. We didn't even get into any arguments. At least, not until I accidentally mentioned that Mr. Weasley had nearly been killed. Warren had been walking me back to the Gryffindor common room after dinner, but when he heard that, he stopped.

"Working for the Order?" his voice was low and worried.

I was already wishing I hadn't said anything, but still I nodded.

"That's it. I have to go to Umbridge." he said. He let go of my hand and turned down the corridor. I chased after him, protesting.

"Warren, stop. You can't go see her!" I said, tugging on his sleeve desperately.

He ignored me as he went down the grand staircase.

"Mr. Weasley didn't die, so it's okay." I grabbed onto his arm and tried to stop him from walking, but he ended up just dragging me along after him.

"You're overreacting." I said as we reached the third floor and turned down the corridor that led to Umbridge's office.

I was panicking now. If the whole D.A got expelled because of my idiot, pigheaded boyfriend… Guilty wouldn't even begin to describe what I would feel.

Warren finally looked back around at me. "I have to protect you. Keep you safe." he said calmly.

The less he reacted to my begging and pleading, the angrier I got. Who was he to decide what I could and could not do? He was going to get me, and all my friends, expelled, because of some stupid belief of his.

"I'm not a child, Warren. I don't need you standing over my shoulder, telling me what I should do." I said angrily "Just because your father was killed and your mother went and offed herself doesn't mean that will happen to me!"

He stared at me for one long moment, anger, sadness, and shock playing on his face, then he began walking away from me, back to the Grand Staircase.

"Okay, Eva." he said quietly. "If that's what you want, then I'll leave you alone from now on. I won't get involved in any part of your life."

Warren looked back at me. His face was emotionless and empty now, and his voice was carefully polite and neutral as he said "But I want you to know that the reason I interfere so much is because I love you, Eva. And I don't want you to get hurt. That would tear me up, you know."

He left me, and I still stood there, numb.

What had I done? We hadn't even been fighting…

Sure, I had been angry at him before, but no matter how angry I had been, I never mentioned his family. I understood from the very beginning that that was off limits. A forbidden subject in our arguments. But this time, some cruel, spiteful impulse inside me had breached that unspoken agreement of ours. I may have possibly ruined everything.

I could have, should have, ran after him, but instead, I walked slowly back to the noisy and cheerful common room. A group of people were laughing over somebody's impression of Umbridge, and normally I would have been right there with them, tears of laughter running down my face.

Fred and George were busy drawing lightning bolt scars on each others foreheads. George pulled a couple pairs of glasses out of his pocket and they slipped them on, then looked around the common room. For Harry, I assumed.

I passed them, and George glanced back at me.

"Eva, watch this…" He trailed off. "What's wrong?"

Fred had been stumbling around, clutching his forehead and wincing in pain, much to the amusement of the onlookers. Even Harry, who had come in through the portrait hole, had a grin on his face, and he was the one they were making fun of.

But then Fred glanced over at us, and his grin dropped a little bit. "You alright, Eva? You don't look so good."

I mumbled something unintelligible, then went up the girls staircase, ignoring Fred and George.

Thankfully the dorm was empty, and I curled up in my bed and pulled the blankets over me.

The only kind of person I knew who would use the fact that somebody's parents were dead in an argument was a Slytherin. I had even heard Malfoy taunting Harry about it on occasion, and I had felt nothing but contempt for Malfoy.

But I had just done practically the same thing. I was a hypocrite, and with one simple sentence I had completely destroyed everything I had had with Warren. He had loved me, and I had hurt him. Maliciously and viciously kicked him right in that sensitive place where I knew it would cause him the most pain. I never thought I would act like that, never thought I would do something like that.

I drifted off into a fitful sleep after making up my mind to wake early and wait outside the Ravenclaw common room for Warren. I would try to apologize, but a small part of me recognized that it would be futile.

My eyes were dry and burning when I woke up the next morning. I changed out of the wrinkled clothes that I had been wearing yesterday, then left the common room. I mentally prepared my apology as I made my way to the corridor where the Ravenclaw common room was located. I had gotten there too early, so I sat down beside the old statue that was their version of the Fat Lady. Several students gave me strange looks as they headed down to breakfast, but I ignored them.

Finally Warren stepped out, and I jumped to my feet.

"Warren! I've been waiting here for an hour, I'm really s…" I trailed off as he passed me without so much as a glance in my direction.

"Warren, please." I said, catching up to him and falling into step beside him. "I'm really sorry, I shouldn't have said what I did."

I waited for him to say something, anything, but he continued to ignore me.

"Just listen to me!" My voice was trembling, and I could feel tears welling up in my eyes and threatening to spill down my face. "I was just really angry. People say things when they get mad that they shouldn't."

He stared resolutely ahead as he walked down the staircase, me trailing after him.

Why couldn't he just stop and listen to me? We had just stepped inside the Great Hall, where several students were seated and cheerfully eating breakfast. The ceiling of the hall was sunny and the sky was blue, which seemed quite at odds with the way I was feeling at the moment.

"Warren, you have to say something, anything to me!" I cried desperately, grabbing onto his hand to try and stop him from walking away again.

He finally turned around to face me. "I'm sorry it has to be this way, Eva." he said, gently disengaging my hand from his. "But if you won't leave the Order, if you won't quit the D.A, even for me, then I won't sit around and let you get yourself killed."

His voice turned slightly bitter. "I don't want to see another person I love die. Or, as you so gently put it 'offed'. So I guess that means I can't love you anymore."

"Once the war is over-" I began.

He interrupted me. "I'm not waiting years for you, Eva. It's not worth it. Really, it's best this way. Besides, I don't even think you will survive the war if you keep on with the Order like this."

Those words echoed inside my mind as he turned away to the Ravenclaw table. If I hadn't been in the Great Hall, and if the people nearby hadn't been staring at me, then I would have certainly burst into tears right on the spot.

But I would not cry where the world could see me.  
I would not cry where Warren could see me.

I managed to make it to the nearest girls bathroom before the tears began pouring down my face. I'm an arse, and Warren is a git. You would think we'd get along fine. Surprise, surprise.

I heard two sets of footsteps walk into the bathroom, then George's voice echoed off the stone walls.

"You're sure she ran in here? I could have sworn I saw her turning left instead of right."

"No, I'm pretty sure she's here." Fred's voice was getting closer to my stall, and I lifted my feet up onto the toilet seat so he couldn't see I was in here. "See, this stall is locked."

I saw Fred's knees on the ground outside my stall.

"What are you doing?" George said. "She could be using the bathroom or something."

"Well, I'll give her three seconds to make herself decent."

He counted to three, then poked his head under the door of my stall and smiled gently at me.

I stared down at him, my arms hugging my knees, tears covering my face. "What do you want?" I grumbled. "There's a reason I went somewhere besides the Great Hall, you know. Privacy."

He twisted one of his arms up and unlocked the stall door, then climbed up out of the floor.

"Privacy is overrated." George said, joining Fred outside my stall.

Fred leaned into the stall, grabbed my hand, and pulled me up.

"We saw you and Warren fighting." George said.

"Do you need us to kick his arse?" Fred said.

"I need you to kick mine." I muttered.

They both gave me strange looks. "Er… why?"

"Because it's all my fault. I mentioned his mum and dad, you know what happened to them, and I said that just because they had been killed helping the Order didn't mean I was I going to be…" I sighed. "He pretty much dumped me."

"You're an idiot." Fred said.

"Excuse me?"

"Any guy that would break up with a girl because she makes a stupid comment about something that happened years ago is the real prat." George said as pulled me into a hug, pressing me against his chest.

"But I loved him…" I mumbled past the lump that had reformed in my throat.

"Well, _we_ love you too, Eva." Fred said. "And there's no chance that we'll ditch you."

"Well…" George said, releasing me from the hug. "Actually, there's a small chance. But it's nothing you need to worry about."

"Yeah. Unless, of course, you insist upon screaming at us that our mum doesn't make very good soup." Fred said."Or that dad's obsession with Muggles is a bit peculiar. Then, we'd have to end it."

"Because honestly, that's just crossing the line."

They both nodded in mock seriousness, then Fred's eyes lit up. He dug around in his pocket and pulled out a small box with a tab at one end.

"Here, take this." he said, holding it out to me. "It should cheer you up."

I wiped away a few tears and took the box. "What is it?" I asked quietly, willing myself not to burst into tears again.

"Just pull the tab." He and George were grinning proudly.

I reluctantly pulled the tab out, hoping like hell that I wouldn't turn into a bird or something. I really wasn't in the mood for that kind of trick.

The box made a small whirring noise, then Umbridge's voice blasted out of it, echoing around the stone walls of the bathroom.

"_My name is Dolores Umbridge, and I am proud to announce that I eat bogeys_."

Fred grinned and took the box. "We planned to hide this around the castle, then activate them all."

"Brilliant, right?" George said.

"_I have several pet slugs in my office_." the box roared, still in Umbridge's voice. "_They remind me of my parents."_

"Brilliant." I whispered, though my heart was not in it.

=+=Fred=+=

So… Eva and Warren are no longer going out.

I'm not going to lie and say that I'm not filled with glee. Because honestly, I am.

I just wish that Eva had been the one to end it. At least then she wouldn't come to breakfast every morning for nearly a week, her eyes red and watery. You could tell she obviously missed the guy, and every time she glanced at the Ravenclaw table, she got this guilty, sad look on her face, and she zoned out.

George and I spent our time dragging her around the castle and keeping her busy pulling pranks on students. If that didn't cheer her up, I had no idea what else would.

One week turned into two; two weeks into three, and Eva began to return to herself again. Her smile, which had been noticeably absent for the past while, was once more returned to her face, and her laugh had regained its authenticity and no longer seemed forced.

She rarely glanced in Warren's direction any longer, and I knew she was alright when she dragged both George and I into the Muggle Studies classroom one evening, put an old Muggle record on, and made us dance with her to some song by a guy named Elvis.

I found myself in an excellent situation; Eva was single again, and so was I. I had a chance with her, now. I just had to decide what to do with that chance, and how to win Eva's heart.

~*~Eva~*~

"I can't do it." I said quietly.

"What do you mean, can't do it?" demanded Moody, his magical eye swiveling around and finally coming to rest on me.

"I mean I can't… won't… See Voldemort anymore. It's… I can feel him inside my mind, even hours later. And I think he knows when I'm watching him.""You'll have to deal with that, Asher."I buried my face in my hands. He didn't understand. Couldn't understand.

I had been called to Dumbledore's office every night for the past two weeks

The more frequently they had me jump into Voldemort's head, the more I felt his presence inside me afterwards. It was like a poison, seeping through my veins. I was beginning to remember things that weren't even my memories. That wasn't supposed to happen, shouldn't be possible.

In normal people, the soul is supposed to hold onto itself, and shouldn't be seeping over into me when I See him. But for some reason, with Voldemort, it was.

Still, I did as Moody said, and I dutifully reported on Voldemort, and several Death Eaters, then returned to the dorms.

It wasn't late yet, and a few people were still up. I joined the twins and Lee at a table.

"What are you all doing?" I asked, forcibly pushing thoughts of Voldemort into the back of my mind again.

"Lee can't decide whether or not he should ask Katie out." said George.

Lee elbowed him, but he was grinning as he did so."You like her?" I asked, surprised and pleased for him.

"She's… I mean, she's very good at… Quidditch… and…" he trailed off.

"So you like her."

"Yeah."

"Why haven't you asked her already, then?"

"He's scared. Doesn't want to mess with their friendship or something." Fred said with a snort.

"I don't think that you have a right to talk, Fred." said Lee. "Might I remind you of-" Lee suddenly winced. "Okay, I get it. Bloody hell, you kick hard."

Fred cleared his throat. "What were you saying, Eva?"

"Lee, you like her. You enjoy being around her. If something feels right, you should just go for it." I said, smiling at him.

"She might reject him, though, and it'd be all awkward between them. He could be risking his friendship with her, which he values very much." said Fred seriously.

George was leaning back in his chair, an amused smile on his face.

"What do you think, George? Should he ask her, or should he not?" I said.

He looked at all of us, tilting his head thoughtfully. "I think that you're putting too much thought into everything. Just listen to Eva, and do what feels right. Do what you've been wanting to do since forever."

Lee looked confused. "Forever? Okay… thanks." He turned to me as he stood. "Do you know where she is right now? I might back out if I don't go now."

"I can go get her, she's probably in the dorms right now." I ran up the steps without waiting for an answer.

Katie was just changing into her pyjamas.

"Katie, a certain someone needs to talk to you."She gave me a funny look.

"Now? It can't wait till tomorrow?"

I shook my head and smiled. "No. He'd probably lose his nerve. So hurry down, okay? Actually, you know what? Just go down in your pyjamas." I grabbed her wrist and dragged her down the steps, a smile on my face.

Fred and George were arguing when we came down, but when they saw me and Katie they were quiet.

"Hey, Katie." said Lee.

She smiled at him, then I grabbed Fred and George and dragged them up to the boys dorm.

"We wanted to watch him ask her out!" protested George.

"You two are so nosy." I said as we entered their room.

I ran and jumped onto Fred's bed.

"You know you love it." said George.

"No, actually, it's very annoying."I looked at Fred, who had crawled onto his bed beside me.

"Get off here." I said.

"This is my bed."

"I'm commandeering it."

"You can't just climb onto something and declare it yours." said George, who had sprawled out in the floor.

"Oh yes I can." I said.

"Well, I'm re-commandeering it." Fred said, poking me in the side.

"That's not even a word."

"Doesn't matter. The beds mine again, you have to get up."

"I already took it."

"You can't just crawl onto something and say it's yours." George repeated.

"Yes you can." I insisted.

Fred looked thoughtful, then he jumped onto me. "I'm commandeering you. And since I own you, and you own the bed, I own the bed by default."

"Get off, you're crushing me!" I said, trying to push his heavy body off of mine. "And I'm not yours." I added defiantly.

"Yes you are."

"Since when?"

"Since forever." Fred said in a patient voice, as if this fact was common knowledge to everyone but me.

"The whole argument is pointless. Eva doesn't own the bed, Fred doesn't own Eva. So there." George said from the floor.

"George doesn't know what he's talking about." Fred whispered in my ear.

"This is ridiculous." George said.

I managed to roll out from under Fred, and I knelt down beside George.

"You seem grumpy. You okay, Georgie?" I asked, laying a hand on his forehead. "Headache?"

"I'm fine."

I narrowed my eyes and leaned closer to him. "You look sick."

"You remind me of Mum when you get like this." Fred said from the bed.

"Well, I'm not sick. So stop worrying." said George.

"You just need a hug, right? Everyone loves hugs." I said as I wrapped my arms around him with some difficulty, as he was still laying on the floor.

"You don't hug me at random times." complained Fred.

"Cause she likes me better." George said.

"Well, that's not true." Fred said.

"I think we all know who everyone's favorite twin is." George said, pointing at himself.

"No, it's me. I'm the handsome, talented, funny one."

"I'm afraid you've mistaken us, dear twin. I'm the winner in all three of those categories."

"How about we ask an impartial judge? Eva, who do you love more?" said Fred. George sat up and they both grinned at me.

"I'm not going to answer that."

"I promise I won't brag when you pick me as your favorite." Fred said with a grin. "You could just whisper it in my ear. It'll be our little secret."

I decided to change the subject. "So, don't you two think it's a little scary that they call a doctor's work their 'practice'?

"No, no, no. We won't let you get away with that. Answer the question, Asher." George said.

Fat chance I was going to do that.

"Isn't it strange how someone believes you when you say there are four billion stars, but yet they check when you say that the paint is wet on something?" I said.

"Nice try. Answer us." Fred said.

"Ever wondered why they call it a 'near-miss', rather than a 'near-hit'?" I said. "Shouldn't it be the other way around?"

They stared at me, identical grins on their faces. I glared back. "I can keep these coming all day, you know. I won't choose my favorite twin." I said as I stood up and headed out of the room. "I'm going to go see if Katie said yes."

=+=Fred=+=

George and I followed Eva down to common room, where Lee was grinning at Katie as she giggled.

"They're so cute together." Eva said. "I knew he liked her. It was completely obvious. I can always tell when somebody likes someone else, you know."

George snorted. "Oh really?"

Lee noticed us standing there watching. Katie smiled at him again, and went back up to her dorm.

"So she said yes?" Eva asked.

Lee looked sheepish. "I didn't ask her."

"What?"

"I opened my mouth, but I just couldn't say it. So I ended up telling her about the time that I-"

"I can't believe you, Lee." Eva sighed. "You just need help. You need to watch how confessions of love are done."

"I don't know if it's love yet, Eva…" Lee said.

"Fred, George, come here." she commanded.

We glanced at each other, then stepped forward.

"Fred, you can be the guy, George can be the girl."

Lee and I sniggered.

"I am not going to be the girl." George protested.

"Yes you are. And Fred, you need to tell George that you love him. Tell him what you feel."

Lee began laughing uproariously, but George and I stepped away and sat down at the table.

"No way." George said. "You're the only girl here, why aren't you volunteering to demonstrate how confessions of love go?"

"Fine. Baby." Eva said. "Now pay attention, Lee. You should probably take notes, because tomorrow, you're going to be asking Katie out."

"George, you can be the guy. Confess that you love me." Eva commanded.

George glanced at me. A smirk lit up his face. "Make Fred do it." He said.

Eva grabbed my hand and pulled me up from the table to stand beside her. I glared at George and Lee.

"Fine then. Go ahead, Fred." she said.

"Eva…" I began uncomfortably. "Er…should I call you something else? Should I call you Katie?"

"Just use my name, Fred. Pretend you're in love with me."

George muttered something that sounded like 'won't need to pretend'.

"It's for a good cause, right, Lee?" Eva said.

Lee grinned and nodded. "Confess away, Fred."

"Eva…I've known you for almost six years. And you're…" My heart was pounding, and I could feel myself sweating. Why the hell was this so hard?

I decided to start over.

"I know as much about you as I do Ginny, or Ron." I said. "I know that your smile goes crooked every time you're only pretending to laugh at my jokes, and I know that during our fourth year, you hid money in your bra to keep it safe."

Okay, this was a bit easier. When I said it like this, it was really just like I was listing things that I had observed in her. Like something a friend would say. This was good, this was safe.

"I know that you have a terrible singing voice, and I know that you don't even care, and you still insist upon singing to George and I when you get bored. I know you like to lie about certain things to make yourself sound more interesting. You know that long scar on your left palm?"

It was a jagged white line that stretched from her index finger down to her wrist. Sometimes when Eva sat by me, I would hold her hand and trace the line with my finger until she ripped her hand away, laughing and telling me it tickled."You told George and I that you got the scar when you were bitten while saving a baby from a rabid dog when you were only ten." I continued. "Well, I saw your dad in Diagon Alley once, and I asked him about it. He told me that you got it while playing with a knife."

George and Lee laughed, and Eva grinned sheepishly.

"Eva, you cheat _all the time _when we play games, but George and I pretend not to know about it. You overlook things that are so obvious to other people. You can be stubborn, and bossy, and you don't know near as much as you think you do…"

Eva's smile had slowly disappeared, and now she was staring at me, waiting for my next words. Now, here came the hard part.

I took a deep breath. "But, even with all the little things that make you imperfect… I still really, really like you. So, will you…be my girlfriend?"

My eyes were fixed on Eva. I was willing her to realize that I wasn't just asking her to demonstrate what Lee should say to Katie. I had meant it, meant every single word.

"Fred… that was… that was great." she finally said, smiling. "Any girl I know would love to hear that said about her."

She looked a bit surprised, and a little bit sad. My spirits dropped. Obviously she thought I had only said all that for the benefit of Lee. Damn. Damn it. Why the hell did she have be such a naïve, dense girl? It would make things far easier on the both of us if she could read people, even just a little bit; and if she didn't think of me strictly as a friend.

"I don't think I can do that." said Lee. He was looking nervous.

"Of course you can. Just…" Eva said. "Just… compliment her Quidditch abilities or something."

"Well that sounds incredibly lame after hearing Fred talk." George said.

"Yeah…" I said weakly. I sat down tiredly at the table. "I did pretty well, right? It's not that hard, Lee."

That was a lie, actually.

"Exactly. Not that hard." Eva said. "Lee, you could have been with her long before now, if you'd just asked her when you realized you liked her. You two could be snogging and everything by now."

George sniggered at that, and even I had to grin.

"Right then. I'm going up to bed, unless George has his eye on somebody." Eva said. "Do you need Fred to say all that again, George?"

"Well…" George began.

"No. He doesn't." I said forcefully, throwing a glare at George, who just smirked at me.

...

Okay, that's it for this chapter... I know, I know, Eva's an absolute idiot in this situation... Fred really should just kiss her.

Go ahead...review... you know you want to...


	13. Chapter 13

~*~Eva~*~

I had to visit Dumbledore's office and See for the Order this evening, to my intense displeasure.

I entered just as a flash of green light had finished going off, and a body slumped to the ground in front of Voldemort, and me.

Nearly as soon as I entered his mind, Voldemort turned around, tilting his head to the side.

"I can feel you, little mouse." he said, his voice a hoarse whisper.

I jumped out of the vision, panting. The Order member, a stern looking older man I didn't recognize, knelt beside me.

"He saw me. Voldemort knew I was there." I managed to force out past the terror that had risen in my throat. "He knew."

... ... ... ...

"You!" I heard the familiar, and very much despised voice of Umbridge saying as I walked down to the Great Hall. I was a bit late for the start of dinner, but I hoped that it wasn't over yet. And besides, I needed to tell the twins what had happened in Dumbledore's office. I hoped to pass some of my fear onto them, and relieve the burden from my own shoulders.

I turned around. "Yes, Professor?"

She was glaring at me like I'd done something to mortally offend her. Her hair was disheveled and she looked all flustered.

"Into my office, now." She ordered.

"For what?" I asked, anger seething inside me and momentarily washing away the fear. "I haven't done anything."

Unless, of course, Warren had ended up telling Umbridge about the D.A. after all. I didn't think he had, but maybe…

"Don't play dumb. Your charming ways won't work on me, Miss Asher." Umbridge said as she dug in her desk.

Charming ways? I never thought of myself as particularly charming, but still, I forced a sarcastic smile at Umbridge. "Professor, you flatter me!"

"Quiet." she snapped.

"Why did you bring me in here?" I asked as she continued to rummage around in the drawers.

She looked up me, her eyes narrowing, mouth twisting in a sickly-sweet smile.

"Now, dear, since you insist on pretending you know nothing about it, I'm going to humour you."She finally pulled a quill out of her desk.

"I left dinner early, intending to pen a letter to the minister before I turned in to bed. I neared my office, when suddenly the tapestries flew from the walls and curled up around me, then began to spin, with me inside them. As you know. When I freed myself, and continued to my office, I saw you walking past it. Fleeing the scene. Now, are you saying you don't recall enchanting those tapestries?"

I knew who had, or at least I suspected.  
Fred and George.  
Damn them.  
Double damn them both.

"I didn't do it." I said.

"Lies!" she shrieked, slamming her palm down on the desk.

I flinched involuntarily, and Umbridge smiled at me.

"Don't worry, dearie. I'm just going to have you write some lines. It won't be so bad."

My heart sank. So far I had managed to avoid any detentions with her, trying to avoid using the quills I had heard so much about. It looked like that was going to change.

She scooted it toward me. "Pick it up."

I glared at her. "No. I didn't do anything."

"Pick up the quill, Miss Asher." She was still smiling at me, as if we were having a friendly chat over tea. "Pick it up or I will be forced to give you a week of detentions."

My mouth opened. This was so unfair! I had only been walking innocently down to the Great Hall. I mean, sure, I had done some other things that I should have received detentions for, but of attacking her with tapestries, I was completely innocent.

"I'm telling you, it wasn't me. I was heading down to dinner."

"Detentions, for a week. Pick up the quill, or I will make it two weeks."

Stupid damn woman.  
I picked up the quill, bracing myself.

She slid a sheet of parchment over to me.

"What should I have you write? I will not assault the Inquisitor?" She shook her head. "No…write the words 'I will not disobey' until I tell you to stop."

I lay the tip of the quill against the parchment and began to write.

Dark red words appeared on the parchment, and faint red lines began to show up on my hand, accompanied by a stinging pain. I winced, looking up at Umbridge. She smiled at me, then sat at her desk and pulled out some papers.

"Please, continue writing." she said in a silly, twittering voice.

By the time I had written it five more times, the faint red lines on my hand had been sliced open, and they were now oozing blood.

I glared at Umbridge after each line, and I was royally pissed off at the twins, now.

My thoughts grew more bitter as the hours wore on. My stomach was growling, and my arm was pulsing with pain. I've never had a high pain tolerance, and tears were leaking freely from the corners of my eyes by the time Umbridge dismissed me.

I stormed out, hating her when she called out behind me "Don't forget, detentions with me for a week."

It had to be at least nine o'clock. That meant I had been in there for just over three hours. For walking in the corridor at the wrong time.

I stepped into the Gryffindor common room with a scowl on my face, mentally cursing Umbridge and the twins. My hand was dripping blood, but I barely noticed it as my thoughts turned once more to what had happened in Dumbledore's office.

"There you are!" said Fred, standing up with a grin on his face when he saw me enter the portrait hole. "We played the best trick on…" He trailed off as I stalked past him, on my way up the girls staircase.

"What's wrong with your hand?" he demanded, grabbing my uninjured arm.

I yanked it away. "Your stupid trick, that's what's wrong with my hand, Fred." My voice was louder than I had intended it to be, but the common room was mostly empty, so it didn't matter.

George and Lee got up and approached me.

"Umbridge?" asked George, as Fred gently picked up my bloody hand and examined it.

"I will not disobey." He read out loud.

"How did you disobey her?" Lee said.

I glared around at them all and pushed Fred's hands away from mine.

"You know that great trick you two played on Umbridge? Where you enchanted the tapestries to attack her?"

Lee grinned. "That must have been hilarious. Did you see it?"

"No." The idiots all had tiny smiles on their faces like it was funny. "I was walking down to dinner when Umbridge drags me into her office and makes me write lines for three hours, because she thought I was the one who did it to her. So, really, thanks."

My arm was throbbing even worse now, and I was fairly sure it had begun to bleed again. "Not only that, but I also have detentions with her the rest of the week."

"Stop it." I said irritably to Fred. He had tried to pick up my hand and inspect it again. "Do you ever stop touching me?"

He glanced away, his face slightly hurt. "I was making sure you were okay. No need to get all huffy." he said defensively.

George and Lee looked at each other, and I saw them both wince out of the corner of my eye.

"Huffy?" I said, my voice rising slightly in volume. I didn't know why I was so mad. They hadn't meant to get me caught, and I knew it. But I was on edge, hungry, and my hand was killing me. "Maybe I'm getting huffy because I have a reason to be, Fred! Maybe I have more things on my mind than the next big prank, and maybe I was in Dumbledore's office, jumping inside Voldemort's mind-"

Fred, George, and Lee all flinched, and the two or three others in the common room were craning their heads around to watch me.

"He saw me, knew I was there! Voldemort talked to me!" I shrieked. In Umbridge's office, I had been focused on hating Umbridge, but now that I was back in Gryffindor tower, my fears about Voldemort returned even stronger than before. "He murdered somebody, Fred. I saw the green light, and there was a body on the ground! And for a second, I couldn't even jump out of the vision. I was stuck there, and he smiled at me, like he had caught me in a trap or something, and then when I finally get out, Umbridge corners me and makes me… mutilate myself for something I didn't do! And you and George and Lee are all grinning at me, asking me if I saw the joke you played on Umbridge. Excuse me if I'm moody, Fred. Didn't mean to inconvenience you." I finished sarcastically.

The common room was silent except for the crackling of the fire in the grate.

One of the onlookers on the sofa started whispering to her curly-haired friend.

"I wish that some people would stop gawking at me like idiots." I said loudly, my voice carrying across the common room. The two girls turned red, but they didn't look away. Harry and Hermione, who were sitting at a table, were also looking, but then George cleared his throat and they went back to their books.

"I…" Fred began.

"Don't." I said, running a hand through my hair. "Just don't, Fred. I'm not in the mood."

I turned away and ran up the staircase.

I managed to doze off rather quickly, but I didn't stay asleep long. Nor did I sleep well.

In my dream, or rather, nightmare, I was inside Voldemort's mind. He, or, I guess I should say we, were walking down a dark street, and jack-o-lanters were decorating the occasional fencepost. It was Halloween.

We stopped at a small house with a little garden out front, and stood staring at it for a moment. Then we drew out our wand and approached the front door. With a wave of our wand we blasted it open, and stepped inside. A pretty woman with dark auburn hair ran up a set of stairs clutching a small baby . We were going to follow, but then we heard a man shout from the room beside us.

Harry, I thought at first, but this man was slightly older, and didn't have Harry's green eyes. It was his father.

The wand in our hand raised, and then the man dropped in a flash of green light. Fool. That thought came from Voldemort, I realized.

Then we turned away from the man's still body, and went up the stairs where the woman had run.

We found her in the attic, hugging the baby. Hugging Harry.

No. I thought, trying to wake up. I don't want to see this, don't want to do this. But I couldn't control the body that Voldemort and I were sharing, and we stepped slowly across the attic toward Harry and his mother.

I heard Voldemort giving her one last chance to save herself. I nearly sobbed when she refused.

So we killed her.

We stepped toward baby Harry. He smiled and cooed up at us, raising a tiny, chubby fist.

We tilted our head, then pointed our wand at him.

How ridiculous that this child was prophesied to either kill us or die himself.

But we could not allow the risk that this child would grow up to defeat us, so we pointed our wand at him.

"Avada Kedavra."

There was a flash of green light, then there was only pain. Excruciating, agonizing, unbearable pain that wracked through my whole body.

I woke sweating, gasping, and clutching at my chest.

Oh god… I had just seen Harry's family murdered. I had been Voldemort as he murdered them.

I had gone into one of Voldemort's memories.

I realized I was sobbing quietly, tears pouring down my face. I still hurt, terribly. Shouldn't the pain stop when I wake up? It hadn't, and it still felt like a hot knife was plunging through me. I wanted to scream.

Angelina shifted and groaned in her sleep, muttering something. I tried to get to my feet, but my knees wobbled and I was back on the ground. I managed to stumble down to the common room, thinking that it was past twelve at least, and everyone would be gone. I could cry or sob and I wouldn't wake anyone up.

But Harry and Fred were crouched in front of the fireplace when I stepped down.

"What's wrong?" Fred asked, jumping to his feet and helping me to the couch. Harry followed close behind.

I felt so weak, so helpless. I still hurt worse than I've ever hurt before.

I couldn't understand why I was reacting this way, though. Shouldn't the tears have stopped running down my face? I couldn't stop them, though, no matter how hard I tried.

I opened my mouth and looked at Harry's face, but that just made me think of the messy-haired man who looked so much like Harry. The one Voldemort and I had killed.

"I'm so sorry, Harry." I said in a trembling voice. He looked more than a little scared as I buried my face in my hands.

"What's going on, Eva?" said a voice from the fireplace. My vision was blurred so I couldn't see who it was, but I recognized Sirius' voice.

"I saw… I was Voldemort. In a memory. With…" I looked at Harry, trying to wipe away my tears. Seeing was becoming a curse.

"I was Voldemort, when he killed Harry's parents." I choked out.

Harry just looked at me, slightly shocked. Fred put his hand on my knee, and his face mirrored Harry's.

"This isn't good." said Sirius. "You shouldn't be jumping into his memories. I have to tell the Order about this." Then his face was gone from the fireplace.

"You saw them?" Harry asked quietly. "Saw them when Voldemort killed them?"

I nodded, trying to even out my breathing. "I… I was Voldemort. I told you about when I See, right?"He nodded.

"Lately, the more I latch onto Voldemort's soul and See, the more I can feel traces of him left inside of me, even after I jump out. I was asleep, and then I was suddenly Voldemort. He… We blew down your door with a spell."

"You were Voldemort? It was like you were him?" Harry asked. There was a strange look on his face.

"Yes. But I swear, Harry, I tried to wake up. I didn't want to see it." I was still trembling. I couldn't stop, and I didn't even know why. But the pain had slowly begun to subside, and I was thankful for that.

Harry was silent for a moment, then Fred stood uncomfortably, putting a hand on my arm. "You should probably get back up to bed."

"No." I shuddered. "I don't want to have another nightmare…"

"Come to my bed, then. You don't have to sleep."

I nodded, and looked back at Harry as we left the common room. He had sat in an armchair, and was frowning slightly to himself.

I wanted to say something, but what do you say in a situation like this? I've never been good at finding the right words in emotional times.

We crept into Fred's room, being careful not to wake the other sleepers. I sat on the edge of Fred's bed.

"I've got to change. No peeking." he added sternly as he slipped off his clothes and into his pyjamas.

"Why didn't you go to the bathroom or something and change?"

"Because, I figured you'd peek anyways, and I thought a nice glimpse of my mostly-naked body would cheer you up." Fred said as he climbed into his bed, pulling me down to lay beside him.

I smiled faintly. "I've already told you, Fred. I have no desire to see you naked."

Neither of us said anything for a moment.

"So are you okay?" he asked quietly.

Was I?

It had been horrible, being in the body of Voldemort, being in the mind of Voldemort while he murdered Harry's parents. I could hear his thoughts going through my mind, could feel the emotions he felt as he raised his wand to kill Harry.

And then the pain… I shuddered and turned to face Fred. "No, I'm not okay."

He slowly wrapped his arm around me and pulled me up against his chest.

"You're still shaking."

"I know."

He hesitantly raised a hand to my face and wiped away the moisture that was still clinging to my eyelashes.

"You're going to look like hell tomorrow." He said. I knew he was trying to take my mind off the dream. The memory.

"You're supposed to tell girls they look pretty, no matter what." I said, deciding to go along with it.

"Well, I've always had a strict no-lying policy." he said.

His hand traced softly up the side of my cheek.

I sighed. "Sorry for yelling at you earlier."

"You've already been forgiven." Fred said softly, smoothing my hair out of my face. "But if you're really feeling bad about it, you could do something for me, as payment."

"Like what?"

"You could just hide out with me tomorrow night when an Order member comes-a-calling. If they can't find you, they can't make you See for them."

"I would love to. But I have detention anyway."

He stopped playing with my hair and wrapped his arm around me again.

"Oh. Right. I'm sorry about that. We didn't know you would be caught and blamed."

"If you feel really bad about it, you could do something for me as payment." I said, echoing his earlier words.

"And what would that be?"

"If I have another nightmare, can I come in here? You can always make me sleep in George's bed, but… you two are my best friends, and I don't like sleeping alone when I'm scared."

"Who does like sleeping alone and scared?" He snorted quietly. "You can join me whenever, Eva. And you don't want to sleep beside George. He flails around a lot when he sleeps. You'd end up with a black eye or something."

"Thanks." I mumbled, snuggling up closer to him and burying my face in his chest.

"Anytime." his voice was faint, then he kissed me on the top of my head. "G'night, Eva."

"Night."But I didn't fall asleep easily.

I kept my face buried against Fred, but every time I closed my eyes I saw Harry's mom screaming, refusing to leave her son, and the limp body of Harry's father amidst the rubble of the blasted-in doorframe.

And I heard Voldemort's voice in my head. "I can feel you, little mouse."

=+=Fred=+=

Eva took forever to drift off to sleep, but finally her breathing deepened, and her body relaxed.

I couldn't fall asleep, though.

I was worried about Eva. She wasn't the type of person that cried a lot, and when she had stumbled down the girls staircase, shaking and covered in tears… I had thought somebody had died or something, honestly.

Still, jumping into Voldemort's memories was definitely not good. I pushed all my worries out of my mind, and instead focused on Eva.

She was snuggled against my chest, sleeping soundly. Her body was soft, so soft, and she was warm. I buried my face into her hair and breathed in her familiar scent.

Fred, you're hopeless, I chided myself.

But she's said she loves me…

Yeah, you moron. Loves you like a brother.

What am I going to do?

Something, I finally decided. I'm going to do something about it.

Eventually.

~*~Eva~*~

I must have nodded off, because I was soon opening my eyes, and light was streaming through the window. My face was still buried in Fred's chest. I sighed and closed my eyes again.

This… this was kind of nice, I had to admit. I mean, sure, his arms were squeezing a bit too tightly around me, he had thrown half his body over me, and he was snoring ever so quietly, but I still felt safe, peaceful, happy.

"Ooh… what'd I miss?" came George's voice from behind me.

I craned my head around and looked at him.

George stood with his arms crossed, grinning widely.

"I slipped into one of Voldemort's memories. Fred can tell you later… I don't feel like it." I said quietly.

"Right… that explains why you're sleeping beside Fred."

I only sighed. "I should get up… can you poke him or something? Wake him up." My hands were kind of trapped against him.

George shook his head. "I've got stuff to do, places to go. See you later."

"George! George, get back here." I commanded. He didn't listen. I heard him whistling a tune as he shut the door and walked down the staircase.

Damn him.

I finally managed to wriggle out of Fred's grasp; even sleeping, that boy is strong.

I paused for a moment at the door, and looked back at Fred. He was sleepily patting the bed beside him, like he was wondering where I had gone.

Oddly enough, as I looked at Fred sleeping, a curious sensation ran through me. It was like a happy tingle, a fluttering in my stomach, and it brought a smile to my face. I recognized the feeling, but I used to only feel that when I looked at Warren. For it to suddenly surface while gazing on Fred was… unfamiliar, but more than that, even stranger than that, it seemed right.

… … …

((A big thank-you to everybody who reviewed Chapter 12… (azngurl113219, alb33, Lime Green Sassy Pants, BookKailei, ForeverTeamEdward13, and SkyMistle214)... you guys are great! To those who haven't reviewed yet, please do so. I really, really appreciate it, and I love every single review I get!

~Thanks for reading this chapter~

XX


	14. Chapter 14

~*~Eva~*~

I was happy that there was a D.A. meeting that next evening. After walking out of Umbridge's office with the words 'I will not disobey' freshly bleeding on my hand, I felt great satisfaction in, well, disobeying.

I was partnered with Neville for this meeting, and he managed to rebound nearly every curse I sent at him.

While his was the most drastic improval in the members of the D.A., everyone else was getting steadily better. We were secretly spitting in the face of Umbridge and the Ministry, and it felt wonderful.

But that happiness faded when I was summoned to Dumbledore's office.

Fred and George promised to wait up for me, and I promised to tell them everything that happened. I was surprised to find that there was no Order member in Dumbledore's office when I stepped in.

Dumbledore watched me as I sat down.

"I understand that you have recently slipped into a memory of Voldemort's." he said calmly.

"Yes, but… how did you find that out?"

"That is not important. But it is most troubling." He tilted his head, light glinting off of his half-moon glasses.

It certainly was most troubling.  
It was horrible. Terrifying. A bit more than troubling, I'd say.

"As a Seer, even one who can slip into the minds of others, you should not be experiencing these memories." Dumbledore stood up and began walking around the room.

I watched him nervously from my chair. I had expected Dumbledore to know exactly what was happening, but it seemed that he didn't.

"And you say that he seemed to sense you there, and he spoke to you."

"Yes… he said that he saw me."

"I can only begin to guess about why he seemed able to do that."

"Would you…care to tell me your guess?"

Dumbledore sent a faint smile in my direction. "I can tell you why you are seeing some of his memories. It has to do with the way his soul has been…fractured. It leaves it weaker, and unable to keep itself together as well as it should. I believe that small traces of his soul are being left inside you when you See him."

So I had part of Voldemort inside me?  
Did that mean I was part-Voldemort or something?  
Damn.  
Double damn.

"Now, I don't believe that these are real pieces of his soul attaching to yours." Dumbledore was saying. He paused, then turned to me. "Imagine, if you will, a fire. That fire could be said to be Voldemort's soul. Now, as time has gone on, he has, through certain methods, separated his soul. Imagine it as dousing parts of that fire."

I nodded, trying to visualize it.

"Now, as parts of the fire are doused, smoke and steam rise up. The smoke is not part of the fire, not truly. That is what is attaching itself to you."

"So… I don't really have his soul combining with mine? It's just like…leftover smoke from where his was fractured?"

Dumbledore nodded. "Yes. Voldemort has returned, you are obviously aware of this. For him to be killed well and truly, certain steps will need to be taken by certain other individuals. But that is not for you to know or concern yourself with." His fingers glided over a few books on his shelf, and he added, "The traces of his soul in yours should not interfere with that, nor should they impede his death."

"And… the dreams? His memories, will I keep entering them?" I hoped he would say that last night had been just a freak occurrence, but to my disappointment, he shook his head.

"You will continue to see his memories, I regret to say." He had sat down in his desk again, and was watching me sadly. "I will not lie. You will see things that may very well cause you to wake up screaming. The things Voldemort has done should not be witnessed by anyone, but you, my dear girl, must watch."

I nodded slowly.

Sleep wasn't going to be my friend from now on, I thought.

"I can't take any potions, to stop from entering the memories?"

Dumbledore shook his head. "They will happen regardless. I do not know how long they will last, even if you stop Seeing him. It could be that the traces of his soul have attached themselves to you permanently. There is no way to know."

"Okay… thank you, sir."

"You should get along to the common room. No doubt there are two certain people waiting up to hear how your meeting with me went."

I smiled faintly, and left his office.

I was going to be stuck with these dream memory things indefinitely. Damn the Order for ever making me start Seeing Voldemort in the first place. If my parents had never sent me to them, I would be perfectly fine.  
I sighed, because I realized I was just being stupid. I was useful to the Order. I had to keep helping them try to keep an eye on the Death Eaters. I knew that them using me was a necessity, but…I could still be resentful about it.

Fred and George listened intently to my account of what Dumbledore had said.

"Blimey…" said George, his eyes wide as he stared at me.

"You-Know-Who's soul inside you. That's…" Fred's face mirrored George's.

"Not his soul, just… traces of it. And stop staring at me like I'll turn into him suddenly." I snapped.

"Ooh… I didn't think about that." George said, nudging Fred in the side.

"That's it. I won't be able to sleep soundly, knowing Eva/You-Know-Who is sleeping beside me." Fred put on a scared face.

"What?" I was confused.

"Well, of course you can't sleep alone. You'll be having terrible nightmares. Who wants to deal with that alone?" Fred said matter-of-factly.

"Right. And I suppose you can occasionally join me in my bed." said George with a grin.

"But Dumbledore said some of the dreams would make me wake up screaming…" I said.

"I'll put a Silencing Charm on the curtains around my bed. That way you won't wake everyone else up."

"Right. Because you don't want me to miss any of my beauty sleep." George said seriously.

"It's a horrid sight." Fred said."Give you nightmares, it will."

"I love you guys." I said, a small smile on my face. "Seriously."

"Ah… now you're getting all weepy." said Fred, a grimace on his face.

"You're such a baby, Eva." George shook his head at me.

"But we love you too." Fred said.

"You've grown on us."

... ... ... ...

Word got around the school about me claiming I had been inside Voldemort's mind.

I suppose I shouldn't have yelled it in the common room, no matter how empty it had been. I'm pretty sure that the two girls who had been on the sofa were the ones who were responsible for it being spread around the school. Harry and Hermione wouldn't have told everybody.

I was sitting between the twins, trying to avoid the pieces of food they were throwing at each other, when I heard a boy whispering as he passed behind me.

"That's the nutter who thinks she can enter You-Know-Who's mind."I stiffened and turned around, glaring at the Hufflepuff boy who had spoken.

He and his friend hurried past when they saw my glare.

"Ignore it. We know you're not crazy." said George.

"Well, not that crazy, anyway." said Fred.

The twins tried to cheer me up by enchanting Angelina's spoon to keep jumping away from her mouth, much to her annoyance.  
But it didn't help me much, and they soon abandoned their attempts, under threat of death from Angelina, who now had milk and cereal slopped all down her front.

I knew I had made a mistake in talking about Voldemort where those other than the Order could hear. But surely nothing bad would come out of, other than the whole school thinking I was off my rocker.

I knew, though, that the Order believed that Lucius Malfoy, and several other parents of students here, mostly Slytherins, were Death Eaters. If one of their children mentioned it to their parents, even just thinking I was insane or something, and the parent happened to mention it to Voldemort, that would put me in danger.  
It was a long shot, but still…

... ... ... ...

At least my detentions with Umbridge were over. My aching hand was certainly thankful for that fact.

I continued to sleep in the boys dorm with Fred and George. Lee and the other boy, whose name I learned was Aaron Bletchley , raised their eyebrows and gave Fred a grin that said 'Oh, I see what's going on. Nice one, mate.'. Fred and George denied that anything of that nature was happening.  
Boys always have their minds sunk low in the gutters, I guess.

I tried to spend a night in George's bed, but Fred had been right about George flailing around in his sleep. I woke no less than three times that night, after George had rolled over and kicked me, or reached out and slapped my arm. The last time, he actually ended up shoving me out of bed, and I just slept with Fred from then on.

I didn't have the nightmares every night, thank god. During that next week, I only had two, and they weren't as bad as the first one. I said that I would probably just go back to sleeping in my dorm, but Fred protested.

"It's kind of nice with you there. I can wipe my nose on your shirt when you sleep. If you left, then where would I be? I'd have to drag myself out of bed and go find a handkerchief or something." He laughed at my horrified look, and I ran off to check my clothes, but they were clean.

Fred is such a liar, I should know that by now.

But I still continued to sleep in his bed each night.

... ... ... ...

I saw less and less of the Quidditch team as the weeks wore on. Angelina always had them down at the Quidditch Pitch, practicing in the hopes that it would do the team some good. The twins and I walked down to watch them one cloudy weekend.

"Okay, this is a bit painful to watch." I said after twenty minutes of staring at the Quidditch Pitch.

We all winced as one of the Beaters whacked Alicia across the head with his club as she flew by him holding the Quaffle. I felt a bit bad for her, actually, despite her frosty attitude since Christmas. That had to have hurt.

"He missed the Bludger by just a bit, don't you think?" George said idly.

Angelina began shouting at the Beater, and Alicia toppled off her broom, but was caught by Ginny and Katie.

"I can't watch this anymore." said Fred, and with a dramatic sigh, he lay his head down in my lap and closed his eyes.

"You know, I think it's safe to say that Gryffindor won't be getting the Cup this year." I said as I played with Fred's soft ginger hair, twirling it around my fingers.

"I think they have a pretty good shot. If everybody else on the other team up and died." said George.

"I don't know, mate." Fred said with a smile. His eyes were still closed. "I still think they'd somehow find a way to lose."

Angelina ended Quidditch practice then. As everybody went to change, she just stood in the middle of the field. Then it began to sprinkle, and she still just stood there.

"Is she… okay?" I asked.

Fred lifted his head up and we all watched her.

"Hey, Angie!" yelled George. "You alright?"

"What do _you_ think?" she yelled back.

So that's a no, I guess.  
We all exchanged looks, and George sighed.

"I'm gonna go make sure she doesn't do something crazy." he said.

"She's reminding me more and more of Wood lately. He got like this when the team didn't do so well." Fred said as he took my hand.

"See you later, George." I said.

Fred and I had barely made it out of the stands when the light sprinkling turned into a full on rainstorm, complete with thunder and lightning. My hair and clothes were quickly soaked, and I'm sure I looked very much a drowned rat by the time we had gotten into the castle.

Poor George. He was still out there, trying to make sure Angelina didn't stand in the middle of the storm and get struck by lightning or something.

Fred kept glancing over at me as we headed to the common room to change, and finally I had to ask why.

"Why do you keep looking at me?"

"Let me think… you're in a soaking wet shirt, a white one, no less, and it's clinging to you. I wonder why I keep looking?" he said, with a roll of his eyes.

I glanced down at my shirt. He was right.

"Keep your eyes somewhere else, Weasley." I said, trying not to blush.

"Only if you stop looking at me." he said.

I frowned at him. "I wasn't."

"I saw your eyes roaming over me. But you see, I don't mind. You can ogle me all you'd like." he said, grinning widely and winking at me.

"You're such a moron. Let go of my hand." I said.

"I don't think I will. I like holding your hand, even when you call me names."

We stepped through the portrait hole. A group of girls were running down the staircase, holding their noses.

"Don't go up there!" one of them said with a gag. "Someone's set off a ton of dung bombs."

Great. How am I supposed to go get changed? I certainly wasn't going up to the dorms. I'd probably die of stink inhalation. That'd be an inglorious way to go.  
I tried to go toward the fire, hoping that I could dry my clothes that way. It would take longer, but oh well. And I couldn't remember the stupid spell to dry things off…

"Sorry, Eva. Can't leave you in those wet clothes. You'd get sick and start snotting all over. Come on." said Fred cheerfully, pulling me behind him up to the boys dorm.

He began digging around in his trunk, throwing pyjama pants at me, and an old white shirt.

"These are way too small for me." He tilted his head, frowning. "Why did I keep them, even?"

He muttered something to himself, then stood up grinning. "Well, put them on."

I turned and went to the bathrooms, peeling my wet clothes off me.

What was I supposed to do about my under things? They were still very wet. I couldn't really leave them on. But the thought of taking them off made me uncomfortable. Uncomfortable be damned, I thought. I wasn't going to wear wet underwear. I rolled my soaked clothes into a ball and left the bathroom. It was nice to be dry again.

Fred was just pulling on a new shirt as I barged into the room.

"You know, it's polite to knock." he said wryly.

"It doesn't matter when a guy goes shirtless."

"If you say so." he said. Then he smirked at me and pulled his shirt back off.

I studiously avoided looking at his chest.

"Put your shirt back on, Fred." I said.

He ignored me, of course. "Are those your wet clothes?" He didn't wait for an answer, crossing the room and grabbing them from me.

"Don't-" I started to say as he unrolled the bundle of wet clothes

My shirt fell to the floor, followed by my underpants and bra. I tried to grab them up from the floor, but Fred was quicker. He was grinning gleefully as he held them. All I had managed to grab was the pants.

"Fred, give me my clothes back."

"Sorry, I'll just take care of these. They're all wet, you don't want them right now." He looked like somebody had just told him that he was the new owner of Zonko's; a wide grin was plastered on his face. "I expected you to at least keep on something, but, hey, I certainly don't mind." he said.I glared as he smirked at me.

"You're a stupid git." I said.

"I'll ignore that, because I know you don't mean it." He turned away from me, humming cheerfully, then walked back to the window by his bed and began laying all my wet clothes on the sill.

I sighed and plopped down on his bed.

He joined me a moment later."I told you to put your shirt on." I said after glancing over at him.

"I'm a guy. It doesn't matter if I run around shirtless. Unless… unless you want me to wear a shirt because," He grinned at me and lowered his voice. "the sight of my body makes you all… hot and bothered."

Not this again.  
You see, Eva, this is what you get for showing any reaction at all when he teases you.

"No. It doesn't." I said stubbornly.

"Then why won't you look at me, hmm?"

"Shut up."

To my surprise, he did. I yawned as we sat on his bed, waiting for my clothes to dry, and eventually I pushed him out of my way and lay my head on his pillow.

"Well that was rude." he said, picking himself up off the floor. "This is my bed, you know."

"It's half mine. I sleep here every night." I said.

"Well then, scoot over. It's only half yours, after all."

I moved over, curling into a little ball again, and he leaned back against the headboard.

"You think George drowned out there?" I asked.

"Nah. George is a good swimmer. Angelina probably drowned, though. But I'm sure it's what she would have wanted,. Better that than have to keep working with the Quidditch Team." His hand found mine and he squeezed it.

"You're horrible."

"I know."

I looked up at him. His eyes were closed and a small smile was on his face.

I want to kiss him. The thought shocked me. No I didn't. He was my best friend. You weren't supposed to want to kiss your best friend.  
Except that I did.

Would he want to kiss me?

"Fred?"

"Yeah?"

"I…"

I was going to ask him about what he had said to me weeks ago, when Lee had wanted to ask Katie out. I wanted to ask if he had meant it.

Fred had opened his eyes and was looking down at me as I struggled to find the words. Was it just my wishful imagination, or was there a faintly hopeful look on his face? Then my eyes went to the table beside his bed, where a small stack of clothes were laying folded up.

They were the clothes he had been wearing when we had been caught in the rain.  
They were dry.

I sat up. "Fred" My voice was quiet. "How is it that your clothes dried already?"

"Er… Well…" His face was suddenly uncomfortable, like he had been caught playing a trick or something.

"You used a spell, didn't you? Why didn't you do that to mine?"

He gave me what he surely believed was his most charming grin.

"Let's not dwell on unimportant little things like that, shall we?" He threw an arm around my shoulders. "Let's talk about you. How have you been? Keeping up with your schoolwork?"

"You're an unbelievably-"He put a finger against my lips.

"Shush. You shouldn't curse at me."I glared at him.

"Dry my clothes off."

"No…. I, er… forgot the spell."

"Liar."

"Okay. Fine. It's for… an experiment, you see."

I raised my eyebrows. "And what experiment would that be?"

He glanced away. "Well… it's, er… it's top-secret. I'd love to tell you, but I can't."

"I'm leaving."

"Okay, fine. That was a lie. I just…" He took a deep breath and looked everywhere around the room except my face. "I just wondered what you'd look like wearing my clothes."

Oh.  
That was… unexpected.

"Any particular reason why you wondered that?" I said.

He still wasn't looking at me, so he didn't see the tiny smile on my face.

"No. Just curious. I've also wondered before what George would look like wearing girls clothes. It doesn't mean anything." He cleared his throat and repeated "Just curious."

"And what do you think?"Fred looked at me, confusion on his face.

"About what?"

"How I look?"

His eyes somehow softened. "You… you look good." He smiled faintly at me. "Very good."

I smiled back at him, then, taking a deep breath, I raised a trembling hand and touched his warm, bare chest. Fred's smile died, and I was afraid that I had just done something wrong. Maybe he didn't want me to kiss him. I began to pull away, but Fred placed a hand over mine as it rested on his chest.

We leaned slowly toward each other, Fred's lips had parted slightly, and my heart was pounding furiously. I had never wanted anything more than I wanted to kiss Fred.  
Our faces were merely inches apart when the door opened. I yanked my hand away from Fred, leaning back; we both pretended we had not just been about to kiss, though I felt sure that my face was as red as Fred's.

George walked in, dripping water all over the floor, shaking it out of his hair. He didn't even seem to notice us on Fred's bed until he had sat down on his own. Then his gaze ran across the windowsill, where all my clothes were still drying, and he looked over at Fred, who still hadn't put a shirt on.

"Did I interrupt something?" he said with a grin. "Don't mind me, just keep on-"

"No, you didn't." I said loudly, my cheeks heating up even more. I didn't look over at Fred, tried not to think about what I had nearly done with my best friend.

Fred got up and grabbed his wand, muttering some spell, and then George's clothes and hair were suddenly dry. I glared at Fred, annoyance clearing away the embarrassment, but he just smirked and sat down by me again.

"Did you get Angelina inside?" I asked George.

He nodded. "She's as crazy as Wood. I never thought I'd say that about anyone."-

Fred finally agreed to dry my clothes off for me, but I still kept his clothes on. I would never admit it to him, but I liked wearing them. I did go back to the bathroom and put my under things back on, of course.  
Going without them seemed a bit strange.

About our almost kiss… it had been nothing. Absolutely, positively nothing. I probably just had a small fever from being out in the rain, and I was a bit delirious. _That's it_. There was no way I could possibly like Fred. He and George were practically my brothers. I firmly resolved to put the incident out of my mind.

I still slept there again that night. No nightmares, thankfully. I hoped that they would stop soon. Nobody from the Order had come for the past week, either, so I'm sure that played a part in it. I assume Dumbledore had talked to them, and maybe asked them to go easy on the Seeing for a few days.  
Woo.

... ... ... ...

((That's the end of another chapter… review and tell me what you thought! It only takes a minute of your day to make mine! A special thank-you to azngurl113219, KendallBTR-EmbryCall, wigginluvr, Lime Green Sassy Pants, BookKailei, Bad Wolf Baybe, ForeverTeamEdward13,and gemenii42 for the great, excellent, fantastic amazing reviews for Ch. 13! You guys rock! If I forgot to mention somebody's name, than I am super sorry. :( ))

Also, I've written a short story about Eva and Fred… it's called Cats, Kisses, and Awkward Silences. 

Summary: (Which I'm horrible at): Eva spends the night with Fred, but of course he can't resist a good old prank the next morning. What will Molly say? 


	15. Chapter 15

Another chapter! A gigantic thank-you to wigginluvr, azngurl113219, BookKailei, ForeverTeamEdward13, angel-unknown, EthanPrime21, Sasha-Brooklyn-Eleanor-Freaket, gemenii42, and SkyMistle214, who all reviewed chapter 14. Whoa! You all rock!

I now present... Chapter Fifteen in the story of two idiotic people who cannot manage to talk through their feelings, even though it would save them a ton of trouble.

A.K.A- I Have A Thing For Morons

=+=Fred=+=

Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but Eva seems to be warming up to me. She's been sleeping in my bed most nights, which is… amazing. Bloody freakin' awesome. Sure, nothing has happened, (Yet.), but just having her there laying beside me is progress towards her finally becoming my girlfriend.  
Oh, that's right. I haven't given up on that yet. I'll never give up until we either snog, or she flat-out rejects me.  
Valentine's day is in a couple of weeks. I think that it's about time Eva becomes my girlfriend.

… … …

Easier said then done.  
I've gotten ready to ask her out five times already this week. Each time, though, just before I ask, she looks at me, smiles, and then I just end up grinning stupidly back at her.

What the hell? Where's that legendary Fred Weasley charm? Because right now, it's curiously absent. And George isn't helping things any.

"So, are you two snogging yet?" he asked once again.

"No."

"Better get to it, mate. Or she'll get with some other guy again."

"Shut up."

… … … …

~*~Eva~*~

February came rolling in, and with it came another Hogsmeade visit on Valentine's Day weekend.

"So has Lee asked you yet?" said Alicia over breakfast Tuesday.

"Not yet." said Katie, poking at her toast.

"Hey." interrupted Angelina. "Don't you remember? The team is going to be on the field that day. We need all the practice we can get."

"Oh." Katie sighed. "Fine."

They sat in silence, then Katie glanced up at me.

"What about you?" she asked.

I looked at her, my fork halfway to my mouth. "You're going to Hogsmeade that weekend, right?" continued Katie.

"Yeah, I guess. I need new socks." I said it casually, jokingly, like I wasn't even aware what day this Saturday was. Truth was, though, I had been waiting for the past two weeks for Fred to ask me out. He hadn't done it yet, and I was getting rather annoyed with the git. If he liked me, I just wished he'd either ask me out, or flat out tell me he wasn't interested. This weird sort of friend attraction thing was getting rather old.

Angelina smiled at my feigned ignorance and shook her head. "No, she means with a guy. Who are you going with?"

"Oh." I shrugged and sat my fork down. "I don't know. Maybe I won't go with anybody. I mean, do I really need a date?"

"What about Lee?" said Angelina. Katie whipped her head around and glared at her. "Kidding, Katie. Kidding. Calm down."

"It's alright if nobody wants to ask you, Eva. Don't be ashamed." Alicia said in a sickly-sweet voice that made me want to jump across the table and shove a sausage up her nose.

Katie twirled a strand of hair around her finger, then tilted her head at me. "I think Fred will ask you." she said.

Alicia snorted.

I merely shook my head. If he was going to ask me, wouldn't he have done it already?

"Well, who really knows about Fred?" I said.

"I doubt he will. Fred prefers Quidditch girls, you know." Alicia said very matter-of-factly. "Athletic girls."

"Even if he doesn't, I'm sure you'll have no problem finding somebody to go with, Eva." said Katie as we all finished eating and headed to our first classes of the day.

... ... ... ...

I was leaving the Quidditch match that Friday with Fred, George, Angelina, and Alicia, when someone called out my name.

We all stopped and I turned to see the Ravenclaw Captain, Roger Davies, strolling towards me. He stopped a little bit away and waved me over. Angelina and Alicia pushed me over to him, small smiles on their faces.

Davies smiled at me as I neared. Even though I currently thought Fred was the best-looking guy I'd ever seen (my opinion was obviously biased), but I had to admit that Davies had the kind of smile that could make a girl go light-headed.

"Hey. So, I'm sure you know there's a Hogsmeade trip this weekend." he said.

"Yes…" I said cautiously.

"Would you like to be my date?"

"I… hardly know you." I said.

"Well, then you should get to know me by going out with me." he grinned.

I considered it, honestly and seriously considered it. Davies was handsome, captain of the quidditch team, and smart. (He was in Ravenclaw, after all.)

I glanced over my shoulder at my friends, who were still waiting. Angelina was nodding at me, obviously she knew what Davies was asking me. Alicia and George were laughing over something, but Fred was staring at Davies, looking more than a little annoyed.

I had hoped Fred would ask me to Hogsmeade, but it was already Friday, and still he had made no mention of it. I had made sure to give him an encouraging, charming smile every time he turned to me. That should have let him know I was interested, he should have understood that I did want him to ask me to Hogsmeade.  
But he never had, and now I was forced to consider the possibility Fred just wasn't interested.

Fred wasn't a timid person, when he had an opinion, he let you know it. So if he liked me, he would say something. So… and this really pains me to say it… so maybe he has no romantic feelings for me.  
Ouch.  
But if that's the case, then what would be wrong with going to Hogsmeade with Davies? Nothing, that's what. It would probably even be good for me. After Warren, I was in need of a fun time with a guy other then my best friends. If something happens, great. If it doesn't, oh well.

And with that decision made, I turned to Davies and forced a small smile. "Sure. I'll go with you."

He grinned. "Good. I'll meet you at the entrance hall." He strode off, smirking as he passed my friends.

I walked back to them slowly.

"You said yes!" smiled Angelina.

I nodded, then looked at Fred. He looked slightly sick. George eyed him, then clapped him on the back. They turned and walked toward the castle, followed by us three girls.

"See. I told you you'd find somebody." said Alicia.

Angelina, who had been watching my less than enthusiastic reaction to being asked out by Davies, said quietly "Maybe it wasn't the person she wanted."

"No…" I said quickly. "Davies is… he's…"

"Not Fred?" guessed Alicia. Her voice had lost it's usual snarky tone, and she sounded strangely sympathetic.

"Yes. He's alright, but he's not Fred." I said, my eyes fixed on the twins, who had sped up and left us behind.

… … … …

Fred is extremely confusing. And maddening. I mean, what was he playing at? Why the hell would he act so… why would he act half in love with me, then just seem to forget all about it? Plus, he acted like a complete git for the whole rest of the day.

Dinner:

"So, Eva, why aren't you sitting with your new boyfriend? You could be feeding him off your fork, sharing food, kissing in between bites of shepherd's pie…" he said, his words accompanied by a sarcastic, pissed-off look.

I wanted to dump my tray over his stupid head.

D.A. meeting:

George suggested that Fred and I be partners for this meeting, probably because he thought we would make up and be great friends again. Fred muttered something in George's ear, glanced over at me, then smirked. I wanted to slap that stupid smirk off his face. But, being the polite young lady that I am, I settled for turning to Ginny, who was standing nearby, and began talking loudly and excitedly about my upcoming date with Davies.

"And I've always had a thing for Quidditch players, you know." I said, forcing a gleeful smile to my face. "And Roger is so very good-looking. Actually, he's probably one of the handsomest boys in school."

There was a slamming noise, and I looked around. Fred was no longer standing by George, and the large wooden door to the Room of Requirement was just closing. I met George's eyes, and he shook his head, then followed Fred out of the room.

I tried not to feel guilty as Harry set us all to practicing Impedimenta charms. I mean, I was perfectly within my rights to date and talk loudly about other boys. Fred was just being…stupid.

_I_ was not at fault here.

=+=Fred=+=

What the hell? I'm the world's biggest god damn idiot. I'm a stupid, stupid, cowardly arse.  
Gryffindor courage? Yeah right. I can't even ask a girl out.

Honestly, though, I _know _I should probably just go tell Eva the truth. But have you ever confessed your love to your best friend? It's easy to say that that's what I should do; a lot harder to actually do it.

Especially now that I'm a bit angry with Eva. Of course she can't make this easy on me. She has to act like she has no idea I love her, then she has to go and throw the fact she's going out with Davies at me.

Women are the most temperamental, moody, problem-causing people on the planet. Seriously. I thought I had made it clear I felt…something for Eva, and I thought she had been giving me signals she felt that same something for me too.

Obviously I was wrong.

… … …

I finally returned to the common room later that evening, after a trip down to the kitchens. I hadn't ended up eating much over dinner, instead spending that time bothering Eva.

My stomach sunk when I saw that Eva was still sitting in the common room, in an armchair near the fire. She got to her feet when I entered through the portrait hole, then walked toward me.

"Fred, we have to talk." she said, in a voice that made it obvious I had no choice in the matter, that we were going to talk whether I wanted to or not. She pushed me out of the portrait hole with her.

"What do you want, Eva?" I asked, before she could say anything.

"If you've got a problem with something, why don't you freaking tell me?" she said angrily, her hands on her hips.

I wanted to. Couldn't she see that? It was just easier to be angry with her.

"No problem at all. Although I'm not so comfortable being friends with some tart." I said.

"What did you just say?" Eva asked slowly, her eyes widened.

Why was I saying this? Why was I doing this to her?

"You know. A trollop. A harlot. A-" The words came out quickly, forcefully. I didn't mean them, but I made it sound like I did.

"Bugger off, Fred." Eva said, her face red. Her hands were clenched, and her lips were pressed thinly together. I had obviously pissed her off.  
Good.

"You're the one who wanted to talk." I said, grinning nastily at her. "So let's talk."

"You… you're so…" she trailed off, frowning. "You're so infuriating. And stupid."

"Well, just run crying to Davies, I'm sure he'll gladly-"

"You bloody wanker." she said, suddenly raising her wand, clenching it tightly in her fist. "What the hell is wrong with you, Fred? I'm your best friend. Why…"

She turned away, and I let the smirk drop off my face. Then suddenly she whirled back around, raised her wand, and yelled, "_Levicorpus!"_

I didn't have any time to react before I was yanked up into the air by my ankle. Eva stared at me, flipped upside down, and to my disbelief, I saw a glistening tear run down her cheek. I stopped struggling to break free of the charm, and I just focused on that tear. I had caused that.

Oh hell.

Eva quickly wiped away the tear, though, and her voice was firm when she finally spoke. "Fred, I don't know why you're suddenly acting like a complete arsehole-"

"Oh really? You don't know?" I said sarcastically, trying to sneer at her again. It was rather difficult, though, as all the blood was rushing to my head and I was starting to feel horribly dizzy.

Eva looked like she wanted to punch me in the face. She even went so far as to raise her fist. Then the portrait hole opened, and George came walking out, looking worried. He stopped short when he saw me hanging upside down, with Eva getting ready to brain me.

"Eva, Fred, you two have to stop this." he said, hurrying forward and grabbing Eva's fist.

"Why should I?" Eva demanded. "Fred's the one being a git."

She yanked her fist out of George's grip and pointed her wand at me. "_Liberacorpus_."

I fell to the ground, (painfully, I might add), and Eva returned to the common room without a look back at either of us.

"Well, you've made a right mess of this situation, haven't you?" George said as I checked myself over for injuries.

"Thanks for the observation." I muttered.

"So what are you going to do?" he asked.

"What do you mean what am I going to do?" I said, wishing for all the world that I could take back everything I had said to Eva. God, I'm such an git.

"Well…" George said, helping me up from the ground. "You don't honestly mean to let Davies go to Hogsmeade with Eva? That, dear brother, would be monumentally stupid."

"Well, I'm a monumentally stupid kind of guy."

George turned around to face me. He grinned.

"Come on, then. Let's go fix all the damage you've done. You bloody idiot."

Please review, everybody!

Thanks for reading!

:D


	16. Chapter 16

~*~Eva~*~

Valentine's Day dawned cold and dreary. I woke in my own bed (there was no way I was going to sleep in Fred's with the way he was acting), dressed, then hurried down to breakfast so I could eat before I met Davies in the Entrance Hall.

Harry was sitting along at breakfast, and I saw the perfect opportunity to put myself in a cheery mood. I sat down across from and plastered a wide grin on my face.

I continued grinning as he ate a plate of scrambled eggs. When he finally looked up, he jumped in surprise.

"What?" he asked.

"So, Harry. I heard you're taking Cho to Hogsmeade today." I said casually.

"Oh." He turned slightly red. "Er…yes."

"That's great." I scrutinized his choice of clothing. "So _that's_ what are you going to wear? Aren't you going to even try to smooth down your hair or something? And have you decided what you'll talk about?"

He looked slightly flustered. "Er… I thought I looked fine."

"Hmm…" I studied him. "Your trousers have holes in them. You should probably go change. And...oh, for Merlin's sake, Harry, you have ink spilled down the front of you."

Harry looked down at the black stain on his jumper. "When did that get there?" he muttered to himself.

"Actually, you know what?" I said after studying him a bit longer. "Don't fix your hair up. I think the disheveled look suits you. Also, try not to forget to eat a mint before you meet Cho. When you two kiss, you don't want your breath to smell like… well… scrambled eggs."

"Er…"

I grinned at him. "You nervous, Harry?"

"Now I am."

"Well then, my job here is done."

I stood up from the bench. Harry looked slightly sick.

"Harry? Don't worry." I said. "Cho really likes you. Everything will go great."

I gave him my most encouraging grin.

"She'll be falling all over herself to snog you." I added.

"Okay…"

... ... ... ...

I waited in the Entrance Hall as couples met up and headed down to Hogsmeade. A half hour passed, and still no Davies. I was beginning to think he had set me up. Every guy in my life is turning out to be a complete git.

A Ravenclaw guy walked by, holding some girl's hand. I recognized him from the Quidditch team, so I ran and stopped them before they left the castle.

"Hey, have you seen Roger Davies?" I asked.

They glanced at each other, and the girl giggled.

"Didn't you hear?" said the guy. "Davies is in the hospital wing."

"What? Why?"

"Apparently he was the victim of someones prank last night. I saw some students taking him to the hospital wing, and… well, he's kind of turned into a squirrel."

The girl let out another giggle.

"…What?"

"Yeah. Madam Pomfrey can't figure out how to change him back."

They turned and left the Hall.

Okay, so my date was turned into a squirrel.  
A freaking squirrel.  
Nothing wrong with that. Probably just an accident. A potion gone wrong.  
Yeah right.  
I knew exactly who had done it.

And he was walking toward me right this moment, smoothing down his ginger hair.

"Fred Weasley, you are such a arse!" I yelled, storming over to him.

He grinned. "So you found out about Davies, I see."

"Why in the hell did you turn him into a squirrel?"

"It was just a prank, the spell will wear off. He should turn back to his normal priggish self tomorrow."

"Why did you do that? You know I was going to Hogsmeade with him!"

"Oh, you wouldn't have had fun anyway. Besides, Davies is a player. He just wanted you to sleep with him."

"And how do you know that I wouldn't have?" The smile slipped from Fred's face. "Had fun going to Hogsmeade with him, I mean."

"Oh." He sounded relieved. "I just know."

I was ready to kill Fred for the second time in twenty-four hours.

Davies, Roger Davies, was now only a few inches tall, covered in fur and probably fleas. And he had a tail.

I was getting ready to give Fred a loud, yelling rant about how big of prat he was, and how he was possibly the worst friend ever, but he suddenly ran his hand back through his hair, messing it all up again, drew in a quick breath, set his shoulders back, and looked earnestly at me.

"Eva… I really wanted you to go to Hogsmeade with _me_." he said. "And I don't want to go with you just because neither of us have dates anymore…"

"Well, I would have a date." I felt the need to point out. "Except you turned him into a squirrel."

He didn't respond, didn't even seem to have heard me.

" I want you to go with me because I… I really, really like you. A lot. And not in the friend kind of way, but…" He paused. "I mean in the way where we do a lot of snogging or something. So will you go?"

Fred was still staring at me, waiting for my answer, but I think I was a bit dazed. Surprised. And above all, madly, inexplicably, happy.

He had turned Davies into a squirrel so that he could go with me instead.

Fred is _so _romantic.

"Eva?" Fred said, his hopeful smile gone. "If you don't want to… then never mind. "

"No!" I half-shouted. He had begun to turn away from me, his face bright red. "Don't you dare walk off!"

"Wh-"

"Shut up. We're going to Hogsmeade, Fred, and you are not going back out of taking me. Finally, you asked. What the hell took you so long? Why didn't you ask me before Davies did? I mean, you could've saved us a lot of trouble, and Davies could have avoided being turned to a squirrel, because I'm sure that's rather..."

I realized I was rambling, and Fred was just grinning at me.

"Let's go." He said.

Fred held my hand while we walked down to Hogsmeade in silence. I don't think we knew what to say to each other. After my initial joyous babbling, neither of us seemed to know what to say to each other.

Things were suddenly quite uncomfortable between us, and I didn't like it one bit.

Fred cleared his throat. "Looks like it'll rain." he said awkwardly.

"You're going to talk about the weather?" I said with a short laugh.

"Well, I happen to think weather is a very interesting topic. If you don't agree, then we have less in common that I thought." He made his voice sound offended.

"Oh, that's how it's going to be? Well, fine then. I didn't want to have to spend all day with your ugly mug anyway."

"I'm hurt. You're possibly the worst girlfriend ever."

_Girlfriend_… He called me his _girlfriend_!

"And I'd rather go out with Malfoy than spend a couple hours with you." I said, stifling a grin.

Fred gagged. "I think I just threw up a little."

We looked at each other, and then began to laugh.

... ...

If I had to sum up the rest of the day in one word, I would probably say 'Amazing'.

But of course we had to stop at Zonko's first. I should have known, I thought as Fred dragged me inside to look at things he had already seen probably a hundred times before.

When we stepped back outside, Fred clutching a large bag of joke products, we found that it had begun to rain. Not just a sprinkling rain, either. This was a torrents-of-water-whipping-down-and-soaking-your-clothes-through kind of rain.

I was nearly trampled over by Cho as she ran back up in the direction of the castle. I guess that meant that her and Harry didn't have such a good time.

But Fred and I _were_, and for the moment, that was all I cared about. We stopped at the Three Broomsticks for a bit, neither of us ready to go back to Hogwarts just yet. We both sipped our Butterbeers, reminiscing on our early years at Hogwarts, back when the twins were young and I was innocent. (Fred and George have never been innocent.)

"And do you remember how during that entire first week we knew you, you always put a mark on one of us to tell us apart? You drew a big star on my forehead each day, so that you knew I was Fred and he was George. You didn't even seem embarrassed about it the first time you did it, just walked right up and marked on me." He laughed to himself. "Only, sometimes, I would wash it off, and I would put a star on George's forehead, and you wouldn't even realize it, even though we hadn't switched clothes or anything."

The time passed quickly, and soon we found ourselves heading back up to Hogwarts. It was still raining as hard as ever, and large puddles were everywhere along the pathway.

Neither of us talked at first, then Fred said suddenly, "Hey, Eva."

I looked over at him, saw him smirk, then he shoved me into a puddle.

"You moron!" I yelled, cold muddy water soaking into my clothes and seeping through my shoes.

The idiot was laughing and pointing at me.

"You're such a git." I muttered. He held out a hand to help me up, and I grabbed it and yanked him into the muddy puddle with all my strength. Fred landed face first in the puddle, splashing water all across me again. He lifted his head, spitting dirty water out of his mouth.

"And you say I'm the git." Fred said, coughing.

I sat there, wiping water out of my eyes and laughing. Fred, however, was not laughing. He had propped himself up on one elbow, and was staring intently at me as I attempted to get the mud out of my hair. I felt my cheeks heating up as he continued to watch me, and I wanted to say something terribly clever and witty, but I could not seem to focus on anything other than the fact that Fred's hand was resting on my knee.

And he was still staring at me.

I slowly let my hands drop to my lap, my mouth going dry.

"You missed some." Fred said, his voice slightly hoarse.

He leaned forward and brushed some mud off the side of my face. Our eyes met, and I noticed very suddenly that Fred's eyes were that beautiful pale blue color of the sky on a clear day. At this moment, that seemed possibly the most gorgeous color I had ever seen.

Instead of pulling away, his hand was still against my cheek. It was like he was frozen there. I opened my mouth to say something, but I had no idea what, and the words didn't come out. My voice didn't seem to be working so well. Neither did my mind.

Fred's gaze moved down to my lips, and he swallowed, then slowly, almost cautiously, leaned forward onto his knees. His eyes (his gorgeous, wonderful eyes) were searching my face, as if he was just waiting for me to object, to push him away with a laugh.

Rain continued to fall, dripping down my forehead, trailing down my face, but I had no desire to ever, ever move from this spot and go someplace dry.

"Are you going to kiss me or just sit there staring?" I heard myself say.

The corners of Fred's mouth quirked up, then he closed the small distance between us, leaning in slowly. There was a hint of excitement and wildness in his eyes, but then I closed my eyes and our lips met for the very first time.

It was like time had suddenly stopped; a thousand thoughts ran through my mind, and I was hyper-aware of every single thing.

Fred's lips were softer than I had ever imagined they could be as they moved on my own, his warm breath smelled like the butterbeers we had just shared, my hands were twined in his dripping wet hair. The wind blew and chilled the both of us, raising goosebumps on my arms and sending a shiver running through me even as Fred's warm body pressed me back into the cold puddle. The mud was soft and squished underneath me.

We were both breathing heavily as our lips met once again, the softness and sweetness of that first kiss replaced by a strange intensity on my part, and a strength and roughness beneath Fred's soft lips.

We finally broke apart, gasping for air; neither of us said anything for a long moment, but I was very much aware of Fred still pressed against me, laying on top of me. His head was over mine, blocking the rain from my face, and he grinned down at me.

"I thought you said I was a moron." Fred said, a tiny smirk on his face.

I was not sure if this was truly happening, or if it was some crazy, insane dream, but I was certainly going to make the most of it.

"Lucky for you, I've got a bit of a thing for morons." I said as I pulled his face to mine again.

***Oh, please review this chapter and tell me what you thought…I'm not quite happy with it, but I've been working on it and editing it a bunch of times, and finally I just decided that this was going to have to do. I still really don't like their date. :(

~XX~


	17. Chapter 17

=+=Fred=+=

Holy hell.

I'm in paradise.

Honestly, if I could have lain in the mud forever, just snogging Eva, I would have, gladly. I had been waiting for that for months upon months. And even before we kissed, I was having a great time.

I was supposed to find some new things at Zonko's for George and I, so I had to take Eva in with me.

The only problem was, she grinned at me each time I glanced back at her, or asked her opinion on something, and it was incredibly distracting. In case you haven't figured it out yet, Eva's smile turns me to a blibbering idiot.

So I ended up just throwing things in a basket and paying for them, barely noticing what I bought.

We went to the Three Broomsticks, and stayed there for quite a while.

Eva spent the whole time talking, holding my hand on the table. God, her hands are soft. And even though my palms started to sweat as soon as she grabbed my hand, Eva didn't seem to care.

I had long since drank my butterbeer, but I really didn't want to leave, so I kept bringing up topics that Eva tended to go on and on about, to prolong our date.

I had just gotten her going about Muggle magic shows (she had gone to several when she was young). Eva had several opinions on Muggle magicians, none of them particularly good.

"But they pull coins out from behind peoples ears, Fred. I mean, is that _all_ they can do? Whoa, a coin, whoop-dee-doo. Guess what? I can make a person grow antlers. Although I suppose that Muggles really do have a disadvantage…"

I sort of zoned her words out at about that point, and spent the next little bit just watching her talk.

And then we left, to find half the ocean was pouring down on our heads. And we kissed. Snogged.

Finally, finally, finally. Those months of pining after Eva while she ran around with Warren, all those nights lying awake while she slept beside me, every single second of torture I endured because she was not mine was worth it in that instant our lips met.

Why did I shove her in a puddle first?  
I don't know. Eva didn't seem to mind too awful much, though!

But of course, McGonagall, of all people, had to walk out of the castle and right up to us while we sat snogging in the mud.

"Mr. Weasley, Miss Asher, get up and stop rolling around in that puddle this instant." she snapped, from under a big black umbrella.

Eva turned bright red, and started rambling, shoving me off of her and scrambling to her feet.

"Oh, Professor McGonagall, we were just… you see, Fred turned Davies into a squirrel, and he was supposed to go with me, but Fred asked me instead, so I said yes, and then he pushed me into a puddle-" She was talking faster and faster, but McGonagall put up a hand.

"As heart-wrenchingly romantic as that sounds…"

I grinned as I got to my feet, trying not to slip and fall back into the muck. Was McGonagall actually using sarcasm? _Wicked_.

"The Headmaster, while he regrets taking you away from your… date, " McGonagall looked me up and down, noting my soaking wet and muddy clothes, then turned her gaze back to Eva. "wishes to speak with you regarding the recent dream you had."

Eva's face lost it's color, and she quickly grabbed my hand, sending a thrill of excitement through me.

"Okay." Eva said.

McGonagall looked us both over once more, then walked back to the castle.

Eva turned back to me, leaned up, wiped some mud off my cheek, then kissed me.

"See you later." she said as she followed McGonagall.

I just stood there, cold rain dripping into my eyes.

Eva's my girlfriend.

Eva is mine!

~*~Eva~*~

If Dumbledore noticed all the mud covering me (I don't see how he could have missed it), he didn't say anything as I sat down at his desk.

"I have been rather busy in regards to other matters," he said, "but several months ago, after the memory of Voldemort's that you entered, I sent a letter to a very old acquaintance of mine who I believed may have knowledge of these matters. He has recently sent a reply, and his news is… troubling."

Okay. Troubling did not sound good.

I shifted on my chair as Dumbledore picked up a very long sheet of parchment from the corner of his desk. He scanned over it, then looked up at me again, light glinting off his glasses.

"My acquaintance has spent much of his life studying Seers and their various abilities. He has also been interested in rather dark magic, for example… horcruxes."

He was silent a moment, and quite honestly, I was too nervous to say anything.  
Why would he feel the need to mention some kind of dark magic unless it was related to these memory dream things?

He explained to me what horcuxes were, pieces of someone's soul split apart and put into another object, by some evil act.

"I believe that you felt what it was like to have your soul split. And since your soul was in the memory also, it was split. " he said.

"So I have horcruxes?"

Immortality sounded nice, especially if I didn't have to murder somebody to make one.

"No," Dumbledore said, "because it was just a memory. Many things about magic are uncertain or hard to understand, and this is one of them."

"But you said…"

"Yes. You do not have a horcux, but you will know what it is to feel one being made. It will feel like your soul is being ripped apart involuntarily, but it isn't. However, your body thinks it is, and will rebel against it. It could very well send you into a state of shock if you enter another of his memories where he creates a horcrux. It all depends on which one it is. The earlier the horcrux, the worse an effect it will have on you."

"But why didn't that happen when I saw Voldemort murdering Harry's parents? You said that he accidentally made a horcrux then."

This was all a bit confusing, honestly. Plus, I had never even heard of a horcrux before.  
And suddenly my soul thought it was being made into one?  
I mean, shouldn't I get a little warning or something?

"I believe it is because his soul was weak then. It would have still been painful, and horrifying, but as his soul had less power then, it would have been nothing compared to the first few horcruxes."

"How many of these did you say there were?"

"Six that I know of."

"And…what happens if I dream of him making the first horcrux?"

"There is a fair chance that you could die. The human body can only take so much pain before it gives up completely."

=+=Fred=+=

"I told you she wouldn't slap you if you kissed her, Fred." George said as soon as he saw me come into the common room, covered in mud, a stupid smile on my face.

I sunk into the armchair beside him, then sighed happily. "Isn't today wonderful?"

"The weather is crap." he said with a laugh.

I waved that away. "Details, details, George."

We were both silent for a moment, George staring down a form, and I was, of course, remembering the feel of Eva's hands twined around my neck, and the way her lips had felt against mine. (Way better than I had imagined, by the way, and I have a fairly good imagination.)

"The lease came back." George said, jerking me out of a pleasant daydream where Eva and I were stranded on a tropical island by ourselves for several days.

"So we got the place?" I asked, grabbing the paper out of his hands and scanning it over. "Brilliant!"

"I think we can start getting stuff moved in pretty soon, and it shouldn't take too long to redecorate. I mean, we've already got the designs worked out." George said.

"How soon could we open for business?"

He paused. "Well… three weeks. Maybe even two, if we leave tomorrow."

"That's bri…" I trailed off. If we left tomorrow, I would be leaving Eva after only one day of our being a couple. I would be missing out on the large amounts of snogging that were sure to come.

I had only just gotten up the courage to kiss her, and suddenly I had to go away.

"A few more weeks. That's it." I said. "We can go then."

George grinned. "And once those weeks are over, you'll say 'okay, seriously, we can leave in two more weeks', and then once-"

"Yeah. I get it." I said.

"So we're staying here indefinitely?"

"Pretty much."

~*~Eva~*~

Dumbledore had me wait in his office until the scheduled member of the Order came about a half hour later.

Tonks, her hair a dark purple with blue stripes, smiled cheerfully at me as she stepped out of the fireplace.

"Wotcher, Eva!" she said.

The mud was flaking off of my clothes by the time we got to the last object in the bag Tonks had brought. This one belonged to a woman, whom I had seen on the front page of the Daily Prophet. Bellatrix Lestrange.

She reminded me very much of Sirius, tall and dark haired. She probably used to be very beautiful, but her face had become pale and sunken-in during her years in Azkaban. She was walking beside a man, also dark-haired. I think he was her husband or something. They stopped at a large, ornate door, and the man knocked.

A familiar face, Wormtail, opened the door a crack, peering out He let out a small gasp when he saw Bellatrix and the man standing there, and quickly opened the door.

They walked into the room, a tall-ceilinged, beautiful thing with dark wood paneling and rich, thick rugs on the marble floor. Voldemort was seated in a black velvet armchair, but when the couple entered, he stood.

"Master…" Bellatrix whispered reverently, dropping to her knees in front of him.

She bared her left arm, revealing a dark tattoo of a snake and a skull. Voldemort pulled out his wand and touched the very tip of it to Bellatrix's arm.

It must have hurt terribly, but the only sign of pain Bellatrix showed was a whitening of her face and a slight wince.

The vision ended, and I was back in Dumbledore's office.

… … … …

What to do about sleeping arrangements?  
I mean, it was perfectly normal, completely comfortable, to sleep in Fred's bed when he was just my friend. But now, things were different. You know, just a bit.

He was my boyfriend (I love saying that. Fred's my boyfriend.), so shouldn't I feel awkward about sleeping beside him?

The thing is, though, that I don't. It feels just the same to press my back against him and curl up as it did yesterday, or the day before that, or the month before that.

I should just stop worrying about it. If I want to sleep in Fred's bed still, well then, damnit, I will.

Just because we kissed does not change one thing.

Doesn't change it a bit.

… … … …

"Eva!" A voice sounded in my head. "Eva, wake up!"

It was familiar. So, so familiar.

"Come on, Eva,"

Fred. I thought. That was who it was. But who was Fred?

"George, she won't wake up!"

Then another voice was there, one almost like Fred's.

I loved Fred, I remembered. That's who Fred was.

And George, he was the other. I loved them both. My best friends.

Yes, I remembered.

"Oh god, please, Eva," Fred sobbed. "Wake up!"

Then my eyes jerked open, almost entirely of their own accord.  
Two identical faces stared down at me in the dark, panic and fear on their faces. Fred and George. I recognized them.

There were trails of something wet running down the side of my face.  
I was hurting, all over. Why was I hurting?

"George, go get Madam Pomfrey or something. Aaron, Lee… find Dumbledore."

George disappeared, and I'm sure Aaron and Lee had gone too.

"It's okay, Eva. You're alright." Fred said. He didn't sound like he believed what he was saying.

I closed my eyes. What was going on?

It seemed like only mere seconds later that the room was filled with more voices.  
I could recognize them, if I concentrated hard. But it was so difficult…

"How long has she been like this?" a man asked. Dumbledore, it was.

"I… it's been fifteen minutes… I think, I'm sorry, I don't-" Fred said. His voice was shaking. "Why, why is she bleeding?"

"Move aside, let me check up on her." said a woman briskly. Her voice was less familiar, but I knew it was Madam Pomfrey.

I felt hands on me, at my wrists and throat, lifting up my eyelids.

"Hold her still, boy, she's shaking too badly for me to check things."

Was I shaking?  
Yes, I realized, and I think I had been this entire time.  
Spasming.  
That was the right word.

"Her heart is beating too fast. Pupils dilated."

"What about the blood?" demanded George.

"I can't tell. If it was only coming out of her mouth, I'd say she bit her tongue, but… it's seeping from her eyes and nose, also. Internal injuries, maybe. Shock?"

That's what the wet trails on my face were. Blood.  
But why was I bleeding?

All these thoughts were too difficult. I just want to sleep, I decided. That seemed nice.  
Except Madam Pomfrey kept poking at me.

"We have to get her to the hospital wing immediately." she said.

"What's wrong with her?" Fred said.

Nobody answered him.

I could feel them lifting me onto something, and carrying me. A person was holding each of my hands.  
I think it was the twins.

I heard whispering as we walked, and Dumbledore telling people to return to their beds.

"Like hell!" said Fred and George together.

"I did not mean you two. I need to ask you both some questions…"

Their voices faded for a bit, and then I was being laid down on something soft.

"Hold her down." said Madam Pomfrey. "I have to make her swallow this, but… her throat keeps constricting…" she started muttering to herself, naming potions.

Two people gripped my arms and legs and pressed them to the soft bed.

"Ready?" asked Madam Pomfrey.

I didn't heard Fred or George say anything, but they must have nodded, because then I felt someone grasping my head and forcing my mouth open.

A foul-tasting potion was poured down my throat, and I began to choke. Somehow she got me to swallow it, but my insides were burning like fire. I wanted to scream, but I couldn't. She did that with several more potions, then finally sighed.

"That should stop most of the bleeding and the shaking, and slow down her heart rate. But she's already gone into shock…" she trailed off.

"May I have a moment to speak to these boys?" asked Dumbledore.

I hadn't known he was still here.

I heard footsteps, then a door closing.

"What happened?" Dumbledore said.

"I… I was sleeping, and then Eva screamed, so I woke up." Fred said. His voice sounded scared still. "I thought she was having a nightmare, and she just kept screaming. I put my hand on her face, and there was blood all over it. She…" He paused. "She kept shaking, and then she just stopped screaming all of a sudden."

"We were yelling at her to wake up, but she wouldn't." George said. "She finally opened her eyes, and Fred told me to go get you and Madam Pomfrey."

"She just stared up at the ceiling, past me, and she was so cold. Then she closed her eyes. You all came in, and… that's it."

"Was she screaming anything, any words?"

"No."

"Will she be alright?" George asked.

There was silence.

"It is hard to tell. If she does not recover soon, she will need to be moved to St. Mungo's. I assume you two will be staying here for tonight?" Dumbledore said.

"Yes."

"Definitely."

"Very well. I will need to go write a letter to her parents, and no doubt the Order needs to be informed, if this was caused by her work for them."

Footsteps went away from my bed.

And I think that later, Madam Pomfrey came back into the room.

"You won't do her or yourself any good by staying awake. Sleep." she said, then I felt her poking and prodding me again.

I wanted to open my eyes, or at least to tell Fred and George I was okay, but I couldn't.

I couldn't gather the strength to even move.

** Another update! Please review this one, I really love hearing what you all think, whether it is good or bad!

~XX~


	18. Chapter 18

** I've gotten over a hundred reviews! Thank you, thank you, thank you so much to every single person who reviewed, and extra thank you's to those who reviewed multiple times! Time to go onto the chapter…

Eva has been hospitalized after entering another Horcrux dream…

~*~Eva~*~

When I woke up, there were a bunch of voices around me.

I wanted to open my eyes, but it was like I was exhausted, and couldn't even summon the strength to.

"So she hasn't even moved since then?" asked a girl.

"She just starts shaking every once in awhile." George said.

"What happened?" asked another girl. The name Katie floated into my mind. And the first girl was Angelina.

"I don't know. Dumbledore either doesn't know, or won't tell us." said Fred

"Remember when she came down from the dorms that time, Fred?"

That was Harry's voice.

"Yeah. She was shaking and crying." Fred said.

"Maybe this is like that time." Harry said.

"But this is worse."

Nobody said anything for awhile, then I heard a door opening.

"Out. All of you. Dumbledore and I have to check up on her again." said Madam Pomfrey.

"Can't we stay and watch, then?"

"No. Out."

There were sighs and muttering, then six pairs of footsteps moved away from my bed. I heard a few people come in to the room moments after.

"Three days, Dumbledore, and still no improvement."

Three days? I had been like this for _three_ days? It had felt like I had just fallen asleep…

"She needs to get to St. Mungo's. I have some contacts there that can deal with it, and they won't ask questions if I tell them it's Order business." a man said.

"I know. I have already made the necessary arrangements, and informed her parents that we are moving her." Dumbledore said.

"When do you think she'll wake up?" the man said.

"I cannot even begin to guess."

A wave of sleepiness hit me, and I forgot all about opening my eyes, instead slipping off into the blackness once more.

… … … …

I was moved sometime after that. I'm not sure exactly when. I just remembered waking up, and my bed wasn't quite as soft, and the room smelled different. And when I managed to open my eyes a bit, I saw a small, tiled room, white-washed walls and a little painting of a dandelion on the opposite wall.

My body still hurt all over, but my mind wasn't as groggy anymore. Thoughts didn't take forever to form. But I still felt weak, so incredibly weak. It was like a thousand big bags of sand were covering my whole body, and I couldn't move my arm, no matter how hard I tried. The efforts tired me out, and I quickly sunk into sleep once more.

I always had somebody in the room with me. The Order made sure that one of their members were always in there watching. Most of the time it was Mrs. Weasley. She always hummed little songs, and I could hear the constant click-click of knitting needles. Sometimes she would get up and come lay her hand on my forehead. She wouldn't say anything, but that didn't matter.  
I had never realized before how much I liked Mrs. Weasley.

Dumbledore had somehow managed to get Umbridge to allow the twins both a few days away from Hogwarts. Fred and George were in my room quite a bit, and they would talk to me in falsely cheerful voices, telling me to stop being lazy and get out of bed already. I couldn't seem to say anything back, or even smile.

After the first day I woke up, I tried several times to move an arm, or a leg. Tried and failed. I think that I was still in a partial state of shock, and that was causing the paralysis. That's what I could tell from what the Healers said when they checked up on me.

... ... ...

Some days I would seem to be recovering, and be almost able to move, then on others, I would seem as if I was dead already.

The doctors would come in, talking about spasms, and blood, and I would think 'this is it, you're about to die', except that I wouldn't, and then I wake up to George, or, more often, Fred in the room again.

"Please, Eva. You have to get better." Fred said once, pressing my pale, limp hand against his face. "Dumbledore doesn't know if you'll live. You keep getting better, then worse." He took a shaky breath. "Don't die on me, Eva. Please…" and then I could feel him whispering things against my hand.

I didn't like hearing Fred like this.  
He was supposed to be happy, laughing, and carefree. This was our first week as a couple, and so far it was fairly garbage. We should be… I don't know… walking to classes together, snuggling on the sofas, snogging in empty classrooms or something. Not sitting in a hospital room, with me weak and lifeless, and Fred sad and sullen.  
I wanted so badly to tell him I would be doing okay. Except I couldn't move.

... ... ... ...

My family visited soon after I was moved to St. Mungo's.  
Fred was sitting by my bed when they came, and Mrs. Weasley was humming some quiet song. I heard a door opening, then little footsteps running up to my bed. Fred let go of my hand.

"Vannie!" It was my little brother. I felt a weight on the bed, then my father's voice.

"Elliot, careful. You might hurt her."

I heard a heavy pair of foosteps, then the weight was lifted off my bed.

"Oh, my poor baby." my mum whispered, taking little uneven steps to my bed.

"Why won't she wake up, Dad?" Elliot said, his voice coming from my left, where Fred had been sitting.

"She's just sick for now." he said.

"It's okay, Vannie. You'll get better real soon." I felt his small, sweaty hand patting my arm.

I wanted to cry. But I'm fairly sure that I couldn't.  
Not voluntarily, of course.

"How did this happen?" my mum asked faintly.

Mrs. Weasley began to explain what had been going on in my visions, and how I had been having memory nightmares. My mum began to cry quietly in the middle of Molly's explanation.

"So he doesn't even know what's happening?" My father sounded really angry. I could imagine his face, all lock jawed and red, like it always got when he was trying to hold back from yelling.

"Well, not exactly, but-" Mrs. Weasley began.

"Who're you?" asked Elliot loudly.

"I'm Fred."

"Are you Vannie's friend?"

Fred was silent, and when he finally spoke, his voice was quiet. "Yes. I'm her very good friend."

"I bet I love Vannie more, though." Elliot insisted, his voice turning to a whisper. "We play Dragons and Sheep during the summer. She always lets me be the dragon, and when Vannie babysits, I get to stay up late."

Elliot was quiet for a moment. "That was our secret. She said I wasn't s'posed to tell. Still, though, I'm her better friend.""

My mother sobbed, and I heard my father whispering to her.

"How about we agree to both love Vannie the same?" said Fred.

"Okay." Elliot agreed.

"Okay, then." Fred said.

I was laughing on the inside.  
I was crying on the inside.  
And I wanted to wake up more than ever.

... ... ...

Fred and George had to leave a couple days later.

"I'm sorry, Eva. But Mum and Dumbledore say that Umbridge is throwing a fit." George said.

Umbridge is a hag, I thought savagely. Now my days would be a lot duller without the twins here to tell me stories and keep me from death-by-boredom.

Fred grabbed my hand and kissed my knuckles.

"Goodbye." He said unevenly.

I heard somebody, probably George, clap him on the back as they walked out of the room.

… … …

From then on, the days grew a lot more dull.

I counted to 17,452, lost count soon after that, and then started over. I tried to remember every moment in my life, starting in my diaper-days. I composed no less than five epic songs about myself, then forgot them the next day.

I seriously thought I would go insane before I woke up.

Never again, I vowed. Never again would I enter Voldemort's mind. I didn't want to risk this happening again.

It took a bit, but I could finally vaguely recall what I had dreamed that night I was taken to the Hospital Wing.

I was this thin, dark-haired young man, whom I assumed was a younger version of Voldemort. We were at Hogwarts, and we walked into a girls bathroom, the one on the sixth floor that's out of order. We went over to the sinks, and started hissing at it. I was thinking that we were insane, but the sink moved, and seconds later, a big-ass snake came slithering up from the dark tunnel that the moving sink had revealed.

There was a noise from one of the stalls, and we pulled a small black book out of our pocket, and hissed something at the snake.

"Go away!" A girl shouted from the stall as the huge snake slithered over to her stall.

I wanted to scream out, tell the girl not to open the door, but obviously I could not. There was the noise of a latch being moved, then the stall opened. I only caught a glimpse of the girl, dark-haired and rather pudgy, before she collapsed to the floor upon seeing the snake.

She did not move as the young Voldemort and I approached her, holding both our wand and the book. We nudged her with the tip of our shoe, and I realized she was dead.

That's all I can remember, and truthfully, I'm glad. I did not care to see what was involved in making a Horcrux.

… … …

=+=Fred=+=

"Come on, Fred. You can't mope around the common room all day." George said.

I didn't even lift my head up from the sofa. "Yes I can. Just watch me."

We had only arrived back at Hogwarts this morning, and I hadn't even bothered going to any classes yet. It's not like I would be paying attention anyway.

"What is Eva going to think?" George said.

"What?"

"Well, when she wakes up and comes back to school, I'll have to tell her that the reason she doesn't have a great party celebrating her return is that her boyfriend didn't feel like getting off the sofa."

I lifted my head up and looked at George. "She _will_ expect a party once she wakes up, won't she?" My mind was already working furiously, thinking up ideas for Eva's party.

"With balloons, and fireworks, and entertainment." George said, grinning.

"We also need decorations. I sat up, running a hand through my hair to untangle it. "Confetti. And a big banner with her face on it."

"Drinks… obviously some butterbeer." George said as I got to my feet.

"Where should we set everything up?"

"Room of Requirement?" George suggested.

"Of course. That way we can have a water slide." I said as we walked out of the portrait hole.

"Oh, she'd love that."

"Let's get to it, then."

… … … …

~*~Eva~*~

One day, what seemed like weeks later, I woke up like usual, and I yawned. I lay against my pillow for a moment. Then it hit me.

_I had yawned!_

My eyes flew open.

The light was too bright, from days and days of just laying in darkness, but I didn't care, because I could open my eyes, and I could move. I think I was crying, but I didn't care about that either.

Tonks was in the room, and she jumped to her feet, grinning, when she saw me moving.

"Asher!" she exclaimed. Then she just sort of stood there. "I…I have to go tell somebody." she said, then hurried out of the room.

I felt weak, and my limbs ached with every movement, but I dragged my legs around and they were hanging over the side of the bed. I wiggled my toes, smiling. Never again would I take movable body parts for granted.

A Healer came into the room, followed by a cheerfully smiling Tonks.

The Healer checked my pulse, my eyes, and made me move every part of my body.

Then he smiled. "Looks like you should be fine."

... ... ...

I got to return to Hogwarts two days after that.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had wanted me to write to Fred and George, to tell them I was okay, but I wanted to surprise them.

My family visited one last time before I went back to Hogwarts.

Elliot and I had a campout on the hospital room floor (we made a tent out of the blankets), and he had me take him up and down the elevator until one of the workers snapped at us, and we ran giggling back to my room.

The day before they left, after exchanging a look with mum, my father took Elliot to the hospital cafeteria.

Mum sat on the blankets at the edge of my bed and picked at a loose thread.

"I see you're still friends with the Weasleys." she said.

"Mum, you knew I was."

"And you and that boy? Fred?"

"What about us?"

"Eva." she said, giving me that 'you-know-what-I'm-talking-about-so-don't-play-dumb' look that I think all parents have.

"His family isn't very wealthy, dear." she pointed out.

I shrugged. "Mum, it's not like we're getting married or something."

She glanced at the door. "Perhaps, but… whatever happened to that Warren boy?"

"We broke up months ago." I didn't want to go into details with her. We hadn't ever had that kind of mother-daughter relationship.

"Okay, but… don't rush into things, honey. I know you think you like this Weasley boy, but when you leave Hogwarts, you'll see that other things besides love are important. I don't want you to have to live unfortunately. I don't want you to be… well…poor."

I tried not to get completely angry with her, I really did.

I only half succeeded, and just ended up annoyed. This is just how she shows her affection, I reminded myself. By expressing her desire to see me wealthy and successful.

"Actually, Fred and George are very brilliant. They're incredible inventors." I said.

Elliot and my father came in the room then, and soon after that, my family said their goodbyes.

Tomorrow I would go back to Hogwarts.

... ... ...

I went by Floo Powder, arriving in Dumbledore's office.

He nodded at me as I dusted myself off.

"Miss Asher, it is good to see you well. You'll be happy to know that the Order has agreed to only make you See Voldemort or his Death Eater's when absolutely necessary."

I grinned. At least one good thing came out of this whole situation.

"Also, I believe that the Weasley twins are in Transfiguration as of right now."

"Thank you, sir!" I called as I hurried out the door.

I was still kind of wobbly and shaky, so I had to stop a couple times to catch my breath as I rushed through the corridors.

Finally I arrived at McGonagall's classroom.

I was panting and trying to catch my breath, and I opened the door without even knocking classroom stared at me for a moment, McGonagall said in a shocked voice "Miss Asher.", and then Fred and George leapt over their seats and ran toward me, identical grins on their faces.

George reached me first, (mostly because he tripped Fred), and then he picked me up and spun me around.

"Hey, Georgie." I giggled.

Then Fred was there, calling George a git, and crushing me into a tight hug.

"Thank God." he said. "I thought you'd sleep till next Christmas!"

I grinned at him as he wrapped his arms around me, holding me against his chest.

"I missed you too." I said, even though technically they had been with me the entire time.

Fred leaned down as if he was going to kiss me, and god knows I wanted him to. Luckily, though, I remembered we were currently standing in the middle of a classroom, dozens of pairs of eyes on us. Even George was watching, a wide smirk on his face.

I didn't particularly care to snog Fred senseless with an audience.

"I suggest you all take your seats." McGonagall said.

What the hell? Class on my first hour back.

I shook my head as I took my usual seat beside the twins. Maybe I should have stayed at the hospital a bit longer.

Fred grabbed my hand, though, and smiled that crooked smile of his, and I involuntarily smiled right back at him. So even as McGonagall continued her lecture, something about how objects retain certain properties after transfiguration, I decided that it was good to be back.

=+=Fred=+=

"Let me open the door now." Eva said, reaching again for the door to the Room of Requirement.

"You'll have to stop that." George said, grabbing her hands and holding her back once more. "Is it time yet, Fred?" he asked me.

I checked my watch.

"Yeah. Okay, Eva. Time for your present."

She grinned, then jumped forward and pushed open the large door.

"SURPRISE!" chorused a roomful of people. Eva's hands flew to her mouth, and her eyes widened as she gazed around the crowded room.

Nearly all of Gryffindor house, plus several Hufflepuff's and Ravenclaw's, had been invited to Eva's Welcome Home surprise party. The Room of Requirement was drastically changed from it's usual appearance during the D.A meetings. Balloons of every color and shape littered the floor, and confetti shaped like E's was falling from the ceiling, only to disappear just before it touched the ground. The walls had been hung with large, floor length banners and posters, with Eva's face plastered on them, or various messages regarding Eva's return to Hogwarts.

And, as George and I had discussed, a small water-slide had appeared, taking up half the room, and several students were waiting in line to climb up the ladder that led to the top.

Eva turned to George and I. "This is a kick-arse party." She said as she hugged George and kissed my cheek.

Then she ran off to the waterslide, pulling off her socks and shoes as she went, and throwing her robe to the ground. I watched happily as Eva ran to the front of the line, declaring that she got to cut because the party was for her. Several people grumbled at this, but they all moved back a few steps.

Finally. Now Eva and I could start being like a real couple. It's kinda hard to do that when one of you is lying in a hospital bed.

Eva climbed the ladder and stood at the top of the waterslide, waving enthusiastically at George and I.

"Watch me!" she yelled across the room, struggling to be heard over the sounds of a balloon-football game that had just been started up. "Are you watching?"

Eva dived forward onto her stomach, shooting down the slide, splashing water all over the floor.

She soon dragged George and I onto the slide, and after George slid down on his feet to the applause of the onlookers sipping butterbeers.  
Eva and I, though, were not to be outdone.

I sat on my knees, and Eva climbed onto my shoulders. "This is a bad idea, Fred." she said quietly as I prepared to slide down the slide.

"Don't be stupid. It'll be great."

"Seriously, I could fall forward and break my-" Her words suddenly turned into a shriek as we flew down the slide.

Eva's fingernails dug painfully into my head, then she fell backwards, behind me, and I did a weird sort of flip forward down the slide. We lay in a tangled heap at the small, shallow pool of water at the bottom of the slide.

"Okay… that was a bad idea." I said after spitting out a mouthful of water.

"You think?" Eva said sarcastically.

~*~Eva~*~

Soon after the waterslide accident, somebody started up a record player, and music began playing. All through the room, people were grouping off into couples, dancing close and spinning slowly around the floor.

I was busy eating the frosting off the cake that was sitting at the food table. Not the whole cake, just the frosting.

"Dance with me?" Fred asked from behind me. I jumped in surprise.

"Don't sneak up on me like that!" I said, licking another bit of strawberry flavored frosting off the tip of my finger.

But I still allowed him to wrap his arms around my waist, and we moved away from the tables and joined the other dancing couples. George had chosen to freestyle it, and a group of people had gathered in a ring around him, watching him dance. I grinned, then looked back to the other Weasley twin.

Fred was staring down at me with the strangest look on his face.

I was about to ask about it, or make some smart comment, but Fred spoke first.

"I can't believe we're finally…" he trailed off, his eyes meeting mine.

"I know." I whispered.

Then he was tilting his head down, and I was closing my eyes, and our lips met once more.  
I was thinking, with the soft music playing in the background, the sound of several students chanting "_Go George, Go George_!", and the feeling of Fred's soft lips moving with mine, that if a heaven ever existed, it was certainly right here, right now.

~XX~

Thank you to wigginluvr, LimeGreenSassyPants, alb33, jackieleanne, ForeverTeamEdward13, gemenii42, .Moony., fruityloops156, KendallBTR-EmbryCall, SkyMistle214, and The Ranting Queen for reviewing Chapter 17! You're all awesome, and you deserve a kick-arse party held in your honor, too!

~XX~

P.S: There might be a slight delay with the next chapter. I've been overloaded with homework today at school. This weekend won't be much fun. Sorry!

~XX~


	19. Chapter 19

**I've skipped ahead some in this chapter, and now it's nearly two months since she has returned to Hogwart's. Okay… on to the chapter!**

**Oh, before I do, there's some hinted at things at the end of the chapter, and at first I wasn't going to add it in... but I think it's kind of funny. So I did add it. The scene is very vague, and nothing explicit. So don't worry! :D**

~*~Eva~*~

Those next weeks were the happiest I had ever remembered feeling.

I hadn't Seen Voldemort for two months, I was improving in the D.A meetings, (it had been seven meetings since I set something on fire), and my relationship with Fred was, in a word, perfect. Wonderful. Amazing. Fantastic. Seriously, former best friends make the _best_ boyfriends.

So, life was good. For awhile, at least. But things couldn't stay great for long, I guess. Thanks to Umbridge.

… … …

We were at another meeting of Dumbledore's Army, and it was finally time for some advanced magic. All of the D.A. erupted into chatter when Harry announced that we would be doing Patronuses.

He blew the whistle, and we all quieted again.

"The Patronus Charm is a spell that acts as your protector against dementors and such. They can also be used to send messages from person to person." Hermione said, sounding, as usual, like she was reading from a textbook. "They generally take the form of something significant to the caster, usually an animal that is special or important to them. Its form can also change when you undergo intense emotions, like love or stress. The Patronus is summoned by focusing on a happy memory."

"Okay, first we'll practice just saying the spell." Harry said.

After everybody had gotten the pronunciation right, he had us take out our wands and concentrate on a something happy.

Harry said it would be easier if we concentrated on a fresh memory.

I glanced over at the twins. They both had their eyes shut tight, and Fred had this little grin curving half of his mouth.  
Cute.  
I closed my eyes and concentrated.

"Okay, everybody. Go ahead and cast the spell." Harry said.

"_Expecto Patronum." _came a chorus of voices.

A light silver mist came out of my wand and just sort of hovered there. I was disappointed, but it seemed like nearly everybody else in the room had the same result.

"Look, George! My patronus is a patch of fog." said Fred, grinning proudly.

"What a crazy coincidence, because mine is too." George replied.

"Okay, that was good for the first try." said Harry. "Let's do it again."

A couple hours, and dozens of tries later, there were silvery animals running, bouncing, and swimming around the room.

A few were still struggling, but the majority of us were happily watching our Patronuses.

I grinned as my silver falcon soared high in the air, swooping and circling.

By far, this was one of my favorite D.A meetings.

Fred and George's Patronuses (a fox and a cheetah), seemed to be showing off, dashing around the room, weaving through the crowd.

_BOOM. _A crash echoed throughout the room, and everybody feel silent.

_BOOM_. The noise came again, and this time, trickles of dust had begun falling from around the stone wall where the door usually appeared. The last few Patronuses faded, and we all unconsciously grouped together.

_BOOM._ I grabbed Fred's hand, and he squeezed it, his eyes still fixed on the wall the sounds were coming from.

_BOOM. _Finally someone seemed to realize what it was.

"They've found us." a girl said in a hushed whisper.

A door materialized on the opposite side of the room from where the noises were coming from.

"RUN!" yelled Harry, and we all flooded out of the newly-made door. It was chaos.

Fred and George both had a hold of my arm, and we turned left once we had gotten out, sprinting down the corridor.

I knew that there was no way we could make it to Gryffindor tower before Umbridge arrived. I yanked the two boys down a small staircase, thinking quickly. If someone had snitched, there was a very good chance that the list would be found, and we would be caught and disciplined anyway. So running away wasn't really going to achieve much. The twins seemed to be thinking along the same lines, and we all slowed to a stop.

"I wonder who told?" I said, leaning against a wall and trying to catch my breath.

"Probably that bloke Zacharias Smith." Fred shook his head. "I knew we should have shoved him in the toilets when we had a chance, George."

"No, he was at the meeting, remember? Couldn't stop going on about his Patronus." said George, wiping some sweat off his forehead.

I tried to remember who hadn't been at the meeting, but the excitement of doing Patronuses had sort of overshadowed everything.

"I suppose we'll find out soon enough. Whoever isn't in detention will be the traitor." I said.

We continued along the corridor and came across a couple of Slytherins, but Fred and George cursed them both before they could turn around and see us.

We made it back to the common room, but no other Gryffindors in the DA came in.

... ... ...

The next morning, all of Hogwarts was buzzing.

I heard from a couple of second year girls that Fudge had shown up, and he and Dumbledore had fought. Then she claimed that Dumbledore had jumped out a window and vanished, after turning Fudge into a porcupine.

Needless to say, I went to Harry for the truth.

I found him, Ron, and Hermione standing in the entrance hall with Ernie Macmillam, all of them looking angrily at the hourglasses. There were stones from Gryffindor flying upward. Even the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff hourglasses had less than before. Slytherin seemed unchanged. Of course, I thought as I joined the group. The Slytherins are good friends with dear old Umbridge.

"He was bluffing," Ernie was saying. "He can't be allowed to dock points… that would be ridiculous… it would completely undermine the prefect system."

"Noticed, have you?" said Fred's voice.

He and George came down the marble staircase and joined us all in front of the hour-glasses. Fred grabbed my hand, but his smile was subdued.

"Malfoy just docked us all about fifty points,' said Harry furiously, as we watched even more stones fly upwards from the Gryffindor hour-glass.

"Yeah, Montague tried to do us during break," said George.

"What do you mean, 'tried'?" said Ron quickly.

"He never managed to get all the words out," said Fred, "due to the fact that we forced him head-first into that Vanishing Cabinet on the first floor."

I had to grin at the mental picture of the twins shoving big, trollish Montague into the Vanishing Cabinet.

"But you'll get into terrible trouble!" Hermione said, looking very shocked.

"Not until Montague reappears, and that could take weeks, I dunno where we sent him," said Fred coolly. "Anyway… we've decided we don't care about getting into trouble any more."

"Have you ever?" asked Hermione.

"Course we have," said George. "Never been expelled, have we?"

"We've always known where to draw the line," said Fred.

"We might have put a toe across it occasionally,'"

"But we've always stopped short of causing real mayhem,"

"But now?" said Ron tentatively.

"Well, now -" said George.

"- what with Dumbledore gone -" said Fred.

"- we reckon a bit of mayhem —" said George.

"— is exactly what our dear new Head deserves," said Fred.

"You mustn't!" whispered Hermione. "You really mustn't! She'd love a reason to expel you!"

"You don't get it, Hermione, do you?" said Fred, smiling at her. "We don't care about staying any more. We'd walk out right now if we weren't determined to do our bit for Dumbledore first." He squeezed my hand, and I decided to take that to mean they were also staying for me. "So, anyway," he checked his watch, "phase one is about to begin. I'd get in the Great Hall for lunch, if I were you, that way the teachers will see you can't have had anything to do with it."

"Anything to do with what?" said Hermione anxiously.

"You'll see," said George. "Run along, now."

George and Fred turned away, dragging me along, and we disappeared into the swelling crowd descending the stairs towards the Great Hall.

"So what's phase one?" I asked as we walked along.

George smiled over at me. "That's a surprise."

"You'll have to wait and see." said Fred.

… … …

Instead of going to lunch, we continued along the corridors. Fred and George ducked behind a tapestry and dragged out a large box filled with fireworks. I grinned as they laid the fireworks out in the middle of the corridor.

So this was phase one. I knew they had been working on fireworks for their joke shop, but now I actually got to see them in action.

I heard the buzz of people coming up the stairs. Lunch was over, and soon the corridor would be filled with people. So I helped the twins light the fireworks quickly, then we all ran behind the tapestry, where a small room was concealed.

"Three…" said George, a grin on his face.

"Two…" said Fred.

"One." I finished, excitement running through me.

There was a slight pause, then a large BOOM sounded throughout the corridor.

There were screams and the sound of running feet as all the fireworks began going off at once.

"Hurry, Filch, hurry!" shrieked Umbridge, her voice only slightly muffled through the door. "they'll be all over the school unless we do something - _Stupefy!"_

Fred and George burst into laughter, and I wished that I could look through the walls and see what was going on.

"Don't Stun them, Filch!" shouted Umbridge angrily.

"Right you are, Headmistress!" wheezed Filch, who as a Squib could no more have Stunned the fireworks than swallowed them.

The door opened, and Harry came through, laughing. He only seemed slightly surprised to see us three there.

"Impressive," Harry said quietly, grinning. "Very impressive… you'll put Dr Filibuster out of business, no problem…"

"Cheers," whispered George, wiping tears of laughter from his face. "Oh, I hope she tries Vanishing them next… they multiply by ten every time you try."

... ... ...

Classes were effectively put on hold for the rest of the day.

Just try teaching when you've got a sparkler spelling out swear words behind you, or dragons comprised entirely of green and gold sparks soaring up and down the corridors, emitting loud fiery blasts and bangs as they went; shocking-pink Catherine wheels five feet in diameter whizzing lethally through the air like so many flying saucers; or rockets with long tails of brilliant silver stars ricocheting off the walls.

Instead of dying down, as the day went on, the fireworks only seemed to become more numerous and powerful.

Fred and George were heroes that night in the Gryffindor common room. Even Hermione fought her way through the excited crowd to congratulate them.

"They were wonderful fireworks," she said admiringly.

"Thanks," said George, looking both surprised and pleased. "Weasleys' Wildfire Whiz-bangs. Only thing is, we used our whole stock; we're going to have to start again from scratch now."

"It was worth it, though," said Fred, who was taking orders from clamouring Gryffindors. "If you want to add your name to the waiting list, Hermione, it's five Galleons for your Basic Blaze box and twenty for the Deflagration Deluxe…"

… … …

I joined Harry, Ron, and Hermione at a table as Hermione was suggesting that they all take a break from studying.

"Are you feeling all right?" Ron asked, staring at her in disbelief.

"Now you mention it," said Hermione happily, "d'you know… I think I'm feeling a bit… _rebellious_.'"

... ... ...

Harry and Ron went up to bed an hour later, but I had managed to coerce Hermione into playing Exploding Snap with me, and we sat concentrating at a table.

Someone clapped me on the shoulder and I jumped, bumping into the stack of cards I had going.

"Dammit." I muttered as my cards exploded in my face.

"So… I won?" Hermione asked cautiously.

"Yeah." I turned around to see Fred smirking at me. What a git.

Hermione grinned widely. "Now I understand why Harry and Ron sit around playing this. Winning is… thrilling."

"Er…yeah. Losing, though, not so much." I said.

"Want a rematch?" Hermione asked, looking hopefully at me.

"Actually, I was hoping to borrow Eva for a bit." Fred said, before I could answer.

I followed him out of the portrait hole, and we walked along the corridors hand in hand.

"You and George are brilliant." I said as a small, spinning Catherine Wheel flew past us, throwing off sparks.

"I know." said Fred with a grin.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

We had headed down a corridor that led to the Astronomy tower, but I couldn't imagine why Fred would be taking me there.

"You can find out when we get there."

"Maybe I don't want to."

Fred sighed. "You're being difficult." I managed to stay quiet until we were halfway up the tall, winding stairs that would take us up to the top of the tower.

"Okay, now you should tell me why we're going up here."

"Why would I do that? You know they say that curiosity killed the cat."

I grinned at Fred. "Luckily I'm not a cat."

"No, you're an annoying, impatient-"

"Endearing, amusing-" I interrupted. Fred just shook his head.

"We're not going anywhere special, so I don't know why you care." he said.

We made it to the top of the tower and headed out onto the ramparts.

I had been up here before, in my fifth year when I took the OWL for Astronomy. Now, though, it seemed a thousand times more beautiful.

The sky was the same, a deep, dark midnight blue, stars glittering all over, but several large fireworks had escaped the castle, and were now exploding in the sky. A large dragon was spinning around in the distance past Fred's shoulder. Or maybe it was just the fact that Fred was holding my hand and grinning crookedly at me.  
Yeah, that's probably why it was so much better this time.

"And you said we weren't going anywhere special." I said, poking Fred in the chest. "Liar."

He grabbed my hand before I could poke him again, and pulled me up close.

"Look." He pointed at a sparkler that was spelling out the word POO outside one of the windows of Gryffindor tower. "Romantic, isn't it?"

I laughed. "Incredibly so. I'm proud of you, Freddie. I didn't know you had it in you."

He was staring at me, and a smile had grown on his face.

"Admiring my beauty?" I asked with a grin.

"No. Your eyebrows are singed off. You look ridiculous."

I raised a hand and checked.

Oh.  
Great.

"I'm going to have to repay you for making me lose to Hermione." I said, wondering just how I was going to regrow my eyebrows.

"And how will you do that?" Fred asked.

"I can't tell you. And I can't tell you when it's going to happen." I smiled at him and wrapped my arms around his neck. "I'll wait until you think I've forgotten, and then…" I brought my face closer to his, until our foreheads were touching.

"…BAM!" I yelled. Fred winced and drew his head back. "My revenge will come when you least expect it."

I pulled his face back down and kissed him softly, but he pulled away again with a grin.

"If this is the revenge, I should make you singe your eyebrows off more often."

"Do it and I swear, Weasley, you're dead." I said as I kissed his neck.

"That'd be overkill, don't you think?"

He lay his hand ever so lightly on my cheek, still grinning that crooked smile of his.

"You never stop smiling." I whispered, laying my own hand over his, and pressing it to my cheek.

He leaned his head down to kiss me again, but paused, our lips just barely brushing against each other.

"George and I are leaving Hogwarts." He said quickly, like he was trying to get it over with.

I had been almost holding my breath, but I let it all out in a rush when he said that. "What?" I whispered, my gaze fixed on his eyes.

He glanced away. "You heard what I said earlier today. There's no point in staying anymore, and now is as good a time as any to start the joke shop up."

"But in a few months, you'll have finished the year up…" My voice was still very quiet, and I couldn't seem to talk any louder.

He finally looked down at me, and his smile was gone. He opened his mouth, but didn't say anything. For once, Fred couldn't find any words.

And his smile was gone.

I think that was what made me force a smile of my own on my face.

"Can't get away from me fast enough, huh?" I joked weakly, forcing back the tears that threatened to spill over my cheeks.

"No, that's…"

Fred scrutinized my face, his eyes lingering on my trembling lips.

Go along with it, damn you.

I was trying not to be selfish. The truth was, I knew Fred and George would do great outside of school. They were geniuses, and the only reason I was protesting their dropping out was because I would miss them both terribly.

"Right." Fred said slowly. "Can't stand being around you. You smell funny, and your feet are cold at night."

"Well, I'm happy you're leaving. Your snoring keeps me up half the night. Maybe now that you'll be…" I swallowed. "Now that you'll be gone, I might be able to get some sleep."

We both smiled faintly at each other.

"You'll miss me though, right?" he asked.

"Yes. And you'll miss me."

"Don't make assumptions, Eva." he grinned and kissed my forehead. "But yes, I will. And I'll write to you. You'll need to finally learn to read, of course."

"Who says I'll write back? Don't make assumptions, Fred."

"Argumentative little thing, aren't you?"

I gave him my stubborn face, but he just laughed.

"Don't make me beg you to write back. We both know you couldn't resist talking to me."

"It seems, Freddie, that you have an over-inflated sense of your own self-importance."

"I love it when you use big words." he said in my ear, making his voice low and husky.

I laughed and pushed his face away.

"Fine. I'll write back. If I'm going to have a long-distance relationship with somebody, it may as well be with a wealthy, successful co-owner of a joke shop."

"Nice to see you like me for me." he said wryly, pulling me up close against him and kissing me.

… … … …

=+=Fred=+=

George and I held off on causing mayhem over the Easter holiday. We were planning to leave sometime after Easter, and so the days seemed to slip by in no time at all. I ended up spending most of my time with Eva. I'm certainly not complaining, though.

Even after so long with Eva, I couldn't ever restrain the grin that broke out on my face whenever she sat beside me, held my hand, or kissed my cheek. I mean, you'd think the initial joy would wear off just a bit, but it hadn't.

She would still come sleep in my bed every night, dressed in an old t-shirt that I was pretty sure was mine, pressing her back against my chest and pulling my arms around her. I would still smooth her hair away from her ear, and kiss her neck as she giggled, telling me it tickled, and she would still slap my hands away if they happened to roam up her thigh or stomach.

It was a routine that never seemed to get old, and if I never got tired of us together, well, then, that was not a problem for me.

~*~Eva~*~

I'm starting to get worried about Fred leaving. I mean, there's alot of pretty witches in that place. What if he started liking someone else? I was being ridiculous, I knew I was. It wasn't like he would just run off to Diagon Alley and get married to the first witch he saw.

Fred liked me, I knew that, and yet I couldn't stop imagining him writing to me in a letter 'Sorry, but I met someone here, and well, maybe you and me can go back to being best friends.'

You're so stupid, Eva. Stupid, foolish, girl. But…the fact remained that Fred would be gone, and I wouldn't see him until the end of term, which wasn't for another two months.

I guess that that'sone of the underlying reasons for what I was going to do. I wanted him to have a nice memory of me, for until the summer when I saw him again. That's not the only reason, of course.  
No, I really like Fred.  
Oh hell. Who am I kidding? I love Fred.  
And plus, I had an idea for my revenge. And it had to be executed at Hogwarts, otherwise he could just apparate away.

=+=Fred=+=

I felt a pair of warm arms around my neck, soft lips kissing my cheek, then Eva's voice whispering in my ear, "Hey Fred, I have something I need to show you."

George and Lee grinned at me as I let Eva pull me up from the grass and lead me up to the castle.

"Have fun, you two!" called George.

"Any specific reason why we're heading inside on a nice day like this?" I asked.

Eva smiled over at me. "Patience, Fred. You'll find out soon enough."

I kept bugging her about it all the way up to the Gryffindor common room, and then up to the boys dorms.

"Fred, I have a gift for you, and if you don't stop asking about it then I'll just give it to somebody else." she said sternly, but then she grabbed my hand and smiled. "It'll be worth the wait."

She closed the door behind us when we got to my room. I turned to her and wiggled my eyebrows.

"So… where's my gift?"

She snorted. "You're a pig. It's not that kind of gift. Go check under your bed."

I was slightly disappointed, but I couldn't help but laughing at her expression.

I walked across the room and knelt down and looked under my bed. There were some dirty socks, and a fake rubber wand, but nothing that looked like a going-away gift from Eva. I frowned as I leaned back.

"Eva, there's nothing…" I trailed off as I saw Eva.

She was still by the door, but she had taken her shirt off, and was grinning at me, one hand on her hip.

Oh…  
Oh.  
Okay, maybe this would be worth missing out on the sunny weather.

Eva strolled across the room toward me.

"I thought you said that it wasn't that kind of gift." I said faintly. I couldn't seem to lift my eyes from her chest. Damn it, Fred. Girls like you to look at their faces. Don't ruin things now. With great effort, I fixed my gaze on her eyes.

"I lied." she said with a grin. "You see, you're going away for a couple months, and I think I'll miss you an awful lot. And I never got you anything for your birthday, so this can be a late present, too. Does that sound nice, Weasley?"

A grin spread across my face. "That does sound very nice, Asher."

"Good."

And then she was in front of me, pulling me up from the floor and pushing me against the wall.

"Someone's a bit pushy." I said.

Eva smirked at me. "Do you want to be the forceful one, Freddie? Am I hurting your male pride?" She pushed her hips against mine and cupped my face in her hands.

Oh hell. Male pride or no, I wasn't going to stop her.

She took my lack of an answer as consent, and then her lips were on mine, kissing me roughly, hungrily.

I pushed us away from the wall and toward my bed. Eva fell onto it, and I followed, straddling her and clumsily pulling off her skirt. She helped me shrug it off, and then pulled my head back down, and our lips met again. My pelvis was pressed against hers, and she kept doing this little rocking movement, her legs wrapped around me and pulling me against her. It felt incredible, and I groaned as she began to tug my shirt off.

Her hands roamed across my chest, then she pushed me off of her slightly, and made me roll over onto my back.

Her soft lips trailed down my chest, stopping above my belt. "You know, I could get up right now, leaving you here in this…condition." she ran a hand from my bellybutton, down to the completely obvious bulge in my trousers. "Would you be frustrated?"

I grabbed her hand before she could do it again.

"To say the least." I grinned.

Her smile was slow in coming, but then she began fumbling with my belt buckle.

... ... ...

Eva lay pressed tightly against me, trailing her fingers across my chest, quite a while later.

Best. Late birthday. Ever.

Eva rolled away from me, grabbed her wand from the bedside table, and studied me, twirling her wand in her fingers.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

She didn't answer, but instead, she straddled my legs and leaned down, kissing my chest.

"While I would love to celebrate your late birthday again, I'm afraid it's just not going to be possible." she said.

I grinned. "No, I assure you. It's possible."

Eva grinned faintly at me. "Remember when I said that I would bide my time in taking revenge?"

"Yes…" I said slowly. Where was she going with this?

"Well, that time is now_. Locomotor Mortis._" She said, pointing her wand at my legs. They stiffened and locked together.

Eva conjured up a thin rope, and tied my hands together, kissing my forehead as she withdrew.

She then jumped off of me and got out of bed.

"Eva, wait, you can't just… leave me here. I'm completely naked!" My voice was slightly panicky. Surely she wouldn't leave me here!

Eva looked over her shoulder at me, and even though she was currently doing something absolutely evil to me, I couldn't help but admire the view. She was still naked, after all.

Focus, Fred.

She's evil. Evil.

Evil and absolutely beautiful.

"I wonder who'll find you, Fred?" she said idly as she bent over and picked up her clothes, slipping into her underwear and pulling up her skirt. "Will it be George, or Lee, or that Bletchley guy?"

I glared at her, but she had turned around again, and was hooking up her bra.

"I suppose it would be best if George found you. It'll be embarrassing still, but… well, you're twins. He's got the same body as you do, so it'll be just like looking at a naked version of him."

"Let's not talk about naked George, shall we?" I suggested. "Let me go, Eva. I'll owe you a hundred favors if you let me go."

Eva crossed the room, picked up her shirt and pulled it on. She returned to the bed and smiled cheerfully at me as she slid her feet into her shoes.

"I guess I can take pity on you."

I sighed in relief, but instead of releasing me from the spell, she grabbed one of my tangled bed sheets up from the floor and placed it over my hips.

There you go, Fred. It covers all the necessary things."

Eva grinned at me again and leaned down and kissed me.

And damn it, I couldn't help but return the kiss.

Fred, you're supposed to be resisting her. Not eagerly snogging her just as she's about to leave you naked and tied up.

She grinned and touched the small red mark she had left on my chest.

"See that? That means you're mine." Her voice was light and joking, but I had known her for years, so I could detect the slight tightening of her eyes and lips, and I knew that she meant it.

I was hers.

And the really strange thing was that I didn't mind.

... ... ...

~*~Eva~*~

I couldn't stop the giddy little smile that broke out on my face as I walked around the castle looking for George and Lee.

I was sore all over, but hell… I regretted nothing. I even almost felt guilty about leaving Fred like that, considering how nice our birthday celebration had been.

Come on, Eva. Toughen up. I chided myself. You're going soft.

Just as I was about to give up and go release Fred, I finally found George and Lee down in the kitchens. They both had butterbeer and other snacks clutched in their arms. I helped them carry some back to the common room.

"Where did Fred run off to?" asked George.

"Actually, he needed to speak to both of you as soon as possible, up in your dorm. He seemed serious." I said. It was hard to not smile as I said it.

"Did he say what it was about?"

"No. You'll have to wait and find out, I guess."

We dumped our food on a table in the common room, then Lee and George headed up the staircase to the boys dormitory.

I opened a bottle of butterbeer and reclined in an armchair.

This was going to be good.

=+=Fred=+=

"Dammit." I muttered to myself. I couldn't wiggle over to my wand, and I couldn't Apparate out of here. The rope around my wrists was tied too tightly, so I couldn't even free my arms.

Hell.

Even though I was plenty annoyed with Eva, I was still rather proud of her for playing this little prank on me. George and I had taught her well.

The door to the dorm opened suddenly and George and Lee walked through. They both stopped in their tracks, eyes wide.

I saw them eying the sheets still rumpled on the floor, and the pillows tossed away from the bed. Then their gazes turned simultaneously to me, laying frozen on my bed, naked with only a sheet to cover me.

They both burst into raucous laughter.

Gits.

George eventually came forward to help me, good twin that he is.  
He had managed to get his laughter under control, unlike Lee, who was still bent over by the door, clutching his stomach and wiping tears from his eyes.

"So… you two have a slumber party?" George said.

"No." I said flatly. "This is called a late birthday present, followed by vengeance."

He smirked as he looked at the red mark on my chest. "Was it worth it, mate?"

"One hundred times over. Now get me out of this spell."

****And so ends chapter nineteen… please review. There is nothing better than hearing the opinions and thoughts of you all! Seriously, I love it, and each review I get just makes my day! **

**I welcome constructive criticism, too.**

**:D~XX~**


	20. Chapter 20

**Well, it's time to send Fred and George off to their joke shop in Diagon Alley :(**

**But don't worry, because the story isn't over just yet!**

**Okay, the first good bit of this chapter is... less than what I was aiming for. But just keep on till the end! :D**

**Dislaimer: Anything you recognize belongs to J.K. Rowling. Everything else is mine... all mine! (By everything, I just mean Eva.)**

**

* * *

**

~*~Eva~*~

"What the hell is going on?" I demanded as yet another student pushed past me in the corridors. Couldn't a girl walk in peace?

"Something's happening at the Grand Staircase!" One of the boys called back. "I heard the Weasley twins were involved!"

"Wait for me!" I ran after them, wondering what Fred and George were getting up to now.

Nearly the whole school was crowded around Fred and George when I made it to the Grand Staircase. I fought my way to the inside ring, and I had a clear view of what was going on. Everybody stared at the twins, who stood in the middle of the floor with the unmistakable look of two people who had just been cornered.

"So!" said Umbridge triumphantly from the staircase." So you think it amusing to turn a school corridor into a swamp, do you?'

"Pretty amusing, yeah," said Fred, looking up at her without the slightest sign of fear.

Filch elbowed his way closer to Umbridge, almost crying with happiness.

"I've got the form, Headmistress," he said hoarsely, waving a piece of parchment around. "I've got the form and I've got the whips waiting… oh, let me do it now…"

"Very good, Argus," Umbridge said. "You two," she went on, gazing down at Fred and George, "are about to learn what happens to wrongdoers in my school."

"You know what?" said Fred. "I don't think we are."

He turned to his twin.

"George," said Fred, "I think we've outgrown full-time education."

"Yeah, I've been feeling that way myself," said George lightly.

"Time to test our talents in the real world, d'you reckon?" asked Fred.

"Definitely," said George.

And before Umbridge could say a word, they raised their wands and said together:

_"Accio brooms!"_

I heard a loud crash somewhere in the distance. Then, flying down the staircase came Fred and George's broomsticks, one trailing a heavy chain and iron peg. They hurtled towards their owners; and stopped sharply in front of the twins, the chain clattering loudly on the flagged stone floor.

"We won't be seeing you," Fred told Professor Umbridge. He glanced around at the silent, watchful crowd. crowd and his eyes came to rest on me. He grinned and winked, and I smiled back, even though I was, quite honestly, wanting to cry. Why couldn't they just stay a bit longer?

"Yeah, don't bother to keep in touch," said George, mounting his broomstick.

"And if anyone fancies buying a Portable Swamp, as demonstrated upstairs, come to number ninety-three, Diagon Alley - Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes," he continued in a loud voice. "Our new premises!"

"Special discounts to Hogwarts students who swear they're going to use our products to get rid of this old bat," added Fred, pointing at Professor Umbridge and mounting his own broom.

"STOP THEM!" shrieked Umbridge, but it was too late. As the Inquisitorial Squad closed in, Fred and George kicked off from the floor, shooting fifteen feet into the air, the iron peg swinging dangerously below. Fred looked across the hall at the poltergeist bobbing on his level above the crowd.

"Give her hell from us, Peeves."

And Peeves, who I had never seen take an order from a student before, swept his belled hat from his head and sprang to a salute as Fred and George wheeled about to tumultuous applause from the students below and sped out of the open front doors into the glorious sunset.

* * *

Hogwarts seemed very strange without Fred and George, but I was constantly reminded of them. They had not left instructions on how to remove the swamp that filled the fifth corridor in the east wing, first of all.

Umbridge and Filch had been observed trying different means of removing it but without success. Eventually the area was roped off and Filch, gnashing his teeth furiously, was given the task of punting students across it to their classrooms. Every time I went that direction, he would glare at me, as if I had been in on their plan. I think he tried to ditch me in the middle of it, several times.

Teachers like McGonagall or Flitwick could have probably removed the swamp in an instant but, just as in the case of Fred and George's Wildfire Whiz-bangs, they seemed to prefer to watch Umbridge struggle.

Inspired by Fred and George's example, a great number of students were now vying for the newly vacant positions of Troublemakers-in-Chief. Lee and I managed to slip a hairy-snouted Niffler into Umbridge's office, which promptly tore the place apart in its search for shiny objects, leapt on Umbridge when she entered and tried to gnaw the rings off her stubby fingers.

Filch prowled the corridors with a horsewhip ready in his hands, desperate to catch miscreants, but the problem was that there were now so many of them he never knew which way to turn. The Inquisitorial Squad was attempting to help him, but odd things kept happening to its members. Warrington of the Slytherin Quidditch team reported to the hospital wing with a horrible skin complaint that made him look as though he had been coated in cornflakes.

Meanwhile, it became clear just how many Skiving Snackboxes Fred and George had managed to sell before leaving Hogwarts. Umbridge only had to enter her classroom for the students assembled there to faint, vomit, develop dangerous fevers or else spout blood from both nostrils. Shrieking with rage and frustration, she attempted to trace the mysterious symptoms to their source, but the students told her stubbornly they were suffering from 'Umbridge-itis'. After putting four successive classes in detention and failing to discover their secret, she was forced to give up and allow the bleeding, swooning, sweating and vomiting students to leave her classes in droves.

But not even the users of the Snackboxes could compete with that master of chaos, Peeves, who seemed to have taken Fred's parting words deeply to heart. Cackling madly, he soared through the school, upending tables, bursting out of blackboards, toppling statues and vases; twice he shut Mrs Norris inside a suit of armour, from which she was rescued, yowling loudly, by the furious caretaker.

Peeves smashed lanterns and snuffed out candles, juggled burning torches over the heads of screaming students, caused neatly stacked piles of parchment to topple into fires or out of windows; flooded the second floor when he pulled off all the taps in the bathrooms, dropped a bag of tarantulas in the middle of the Great Hall during breakfast and, whenever he fancied a break, spent hours at a time floating along after Umbridge and blowing loud raspberries every time she spoke.

I received Fred's first letter only three days after they had left.

* * *

_Eva,_

_I said I'd write, didn't I?_

_Never let it be said that Fred Weasley isn't a man of his word._

_George and I made it to the shop alright and now we're working on getting it cleaned up and ready for customers. When you come visit, it'll be finished and you'll think it's the most amazing, flashy shop you've ever seen. __Seriously, you'll love it._

_Before I forget, George wanted me to tell you hello, and that he might have left a spare pack of Dungbombs and a couple of fireworks under his bed if you wanted to cause a little mischief in our absence. __So find them and have some fun._

_Also, I'm sending a package along with this. Nothing against Hogwarts rules, as I know Umbridge would confiscate it anyway._

_Don't open it just yet. I'll tell you what it is first, okay? I just feel like ruining the surprise. _

_It's a locket, but it changes colors, depending on…certain things. Do me a favor, and write back to me, and make sure you tell me what color the locket turned when you put it on._

_Thanks.  
_

_Also, quick question: Have you ever seen a dragonskin suit?_

_-Fred_

_

* * *

_

I eagerly opened the roughly wrapped package. A small circle locket dangled at the end of a thin golden chain. And a little black stone was set on the outside. When I picked it up, it turned a dark, deep pink color. I grinned and put it on, then wrote a reply back to Fred.

_Dear Fred,_

_Thanks for the gift, but I'm not stupid, you know. __I know the locket is one of those that changes colors depending on how you feel about someone. __You're trying to see how much I like you, you tricky boy, you. __Well, no. I'm not making it that easy, Fred. Sorry.  
__(I'm not really sorry.)_

_I wish it was already the end of the school year. Hogwarts isn't much fun right now. The teachers are loading us with homework, and Umbridge is stalking around giving detentions to any student who looks at her askance. _

_Everyone in Hogwarts has taken your rebellious flight into the sunset (it was quite dramatic, you know) as a sign to create chaos. __You should be getting a lot of business from the students, I expect. Skiving Snackboxes, fireworks, Dungbombs, and everything will be in high demand. Good job. _

_It's too bad that you guys dropped out with so much time left in the term. I was getting used to spending evenings curled up with you on an armchair, or watching you and George play pranks on poor, unsuspecting students._

_And I already knew about (and used up) all the dungbombs under George's bed. Except I attached them to the fireworks first. __You were right, setting them off in the pipe system really does make them fly all over the castle.  
__The only reason I'm writing this in a letter is because Umbridge already caught me. Or, rather, one of the Inquisitorial Squad caught me. You know Millicent Bulstrode, right? That huge Slytherin girl that walks like a gorilla? One of the fireworks flew out of the pipe in the bathroom when she walked in, and exploded in her face. And the distracting fireworks are now accompanied by the stench of Dungbombs. __Double yay._

_I was sentenced to three days of detention with Umbridge for it. __My hand is going to be so sore._

_And... have I ever seen a dragonskin suit? No… But I have seen a set of dragonskin nightclothes. __Don't ask._

_Write again soon._

_-Eva_

_P.S.- Tell George I said hello, and that I hope he's remembering to wash behind his ears. I know you two tend to neglect your hygiene when I'm not around to keep you looking presentable.__  
_

_

* * *

_

_Eva,_

_Are you sure you don't want to tell me what color the locket turned? __I'd be eternally grateful… __Don't you want me to be eternally grateful to you? __It's just one word, come on. Tell me what color it was! I fully expect your answer in the next letter._

_Nice job with the dungbomb fireworks. Maybe if you work real hard, and don't slack off, you can be half as good at tricks as George and I are._

_Dragonskin nightclothes? __You have officially peaked my interest. This I have to hear._

_-Fred_

_

* * *

_

_Fred,_

_Well, you won't get to hear. The subject of dragonskin nightclothes is strictly forbidden. And that's that._

_Guess what, though? The last match of the Quidditch season is tomorrow morning. __Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw. __Ron, bless him, is going around almost cheerfully, saying "Well, I can't get any worse, can I?". __How strange that he has become optimistic._

_(I'll tell you in my next letter how the match went.)_

_N.E.W.T.S are coming up soon, and all the teachers are working us to the ground. I'm so tired, I dozed off right in the middle of Potions. Bad idea. I flopped over and knocked Lee's cauldron to the ground, and it exploded. Snape gave me several days of detention. Fun times, here. _

_I'm jealous of you, Fred. I never thought I'd say it, but I am._

_I wish I had a broomstick to fly away on._

_-Eva_

_

* * *

_

The weather was warm, balmy, and perfect, but even the sunshine failed to cheer me up. This morning was the Quidditch Match, Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw, and though I hoped that Gryffindor would win, I knew that Ravenclaw would be the likely victors.

I was sitting by Lee at the commentators table. Since Fred and George had left, we had started hanging out more than we had used to. It was alright, but it just felt strange without the twins.

As the teams zoomed out on to the pitch Lee named the players with something less than his usual gusto.

'… Bradley… Davies… Chang,' Lee finished up announcing the teams, and the match began.

'And they're off!' said Lee. 'And Davies takes the Quaffle immediately, Ravenclaw Captain Davies with the Quaffle, he dodges Johnson, he dodges Bell, he dodges Spinnet as well… he's going straight for goal! He's going to shoot -and - and -' Lee swore very loudly. 'And he's scored.'

All of the Gryffindors groaned, and predictably, the Slytherins on the other side of the stands began to sing:

_"Weasley cannot save a thing He cannot block a single ring…'_

I felt a sinking in my stomach. Already this was going bad.

Lee and I glanced at each other and I shook my head.

It seemed Ravenclaw would win the cup this year.

One of the Ravenclaw chasers, Bradley, flew toward Ron and I cringed.

A roar rose up from the stands, but it was not Ravenclaw's side.

"Weasley… blocks the Quaffle." Lee said, slightly stunned.

A few minutes later, Ron blocked another attempt at a goal. The Gryffindors's scream was even louder this time, largely due to me yanking the microphone from Lee and yelling into it. He grabbed it back, but he was grinning.

Maybe Gryffindor had a chance this time.

Maybe.

* * *

"Have another butterbeer, Ron!" I yelled in his ear. It was loud and noisy in the Gryffindor common room that evening. He took the bottle from me and chugged it down just as Angelina decided it was a good time to stand on a table and give a play-by-play account of the match.

Gryffindor had won, much to everyone's surprise.

Ron had saved goal after goal, and Ginny had finally caught the snitch from right under Cho's nose. Ron had been carried back up to the castle on the shoulders of several students, and he still hadn't stopped grinning. Most of us didn't get to bed until late that night.

I trudged up the steps to the girls dorm and dressed for bed when I finally had begun to yawn.

After so many months of sleeping cuddled up next to Fred, being alone in a bed felt odd and uncomfortable. And lonely.

George was gone too, so he was out of the question. I wasn't going to go join Lee, that much was for sure. And Alicia and Angelina and Katie might be a bit weirded out if I crawled under the covers with them.

I wrapped myself tightly in my blankets and curled into a little ball, trying to console myself.

At least I wasn't Seeing for the Order anymore. With Dumbledore gone and Umbridge keeping a constant eye on the Floo network, it would be next to impossible for someone to get into the school to meet with me.

That meant that my nightmares were few and far between, and for that I was thankful.

* * *

I received another short letter from Fred the next morning at breakfast. I finished eating my bacon, then walked up to the Owlery reading the letter.

_Eva,_

_Why wouldn't you be jealous of me? __Hell, I'm Fred Weasley. THE Fred Weasley.  
__Joking.  
__(Sort of.)_

_Just think of the end of term while you struggle through the tests. __Besides, it doesn't matter whether you completely screw up, does it? __You were talking about joining the Order once you left Hogwarts, if I remember correctly, and if that fails, you can always come work with George and I. __We'll dress you up a funny costume and have you stand on the sidewalk, advertising for our shop. __So don't worry about it._

_And you wanted to know how I felt about you, Eva?_

_Let's just say that you're growing on me, like some wonderful, lovely fungus._

_-Fred_

__

_P.S.- Don't forget to tell me who won the last match._

___

* * *

_

I shook my head, and for lack of any other writing surface, stopped a nearby second-year.

"Hey, can I borrow your back for a minute?" I asked.

The girl gave me a strange look, but consented. She stood there awkwardly as I took out a sheet of parchment and, using the girls back as a desk, scribbled out a reply to Fred.

* * *

_Dear Fred,_

_Gryffindor won the Cup!_

_Ron did a very good job guarding the goal posts, (I knew he had it in him), and Ginny caught the Snitch. __There was a celebration in the common room until almost midnight. It was fun, but it's just not the same without you and George there._

_N.E.W.T.S begin tomorrow. Then there's… what, a few days, until I get to see all of ._

'_Wonderful lovely fungus?' Hold back on the flattery. If you're not careful, I just might fall in love with you._

_And you'd let me dress up and be an advertisement? That is so kind of you. I've always dreamed of doing just that, in fact. So thanks, Freddie, for making my dreams come true._

_I miss you._

_-Eva_

_

* * *

_

After taking three N.E.W.T.S, I began to fear that I would indeed have to take Fred up on his job offer.

I completely screwed up on Herbology, at least. Then again, I had never had any hope in that class from the very beginning.

I was ready to yank out my hair or possibly go insane by the time my last N.E.W.T exam was completed. I filed out of the Potions classroom with the other students, and hurried up to Gryffindor tower and collapsed into my bed.

Finally. The year was over.  
Or so I thought.

* * *

I was walking back from the kitchens, (I had a sudden craving for cupcakes. So what?), when I was nearly plowed over by Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Luna, and Neville.

"Harry, if Sirius isn't-" Hermione was saying.

"He is, Hermione. Voldemort was torturing him. I saw it." Harry interrupted, his face white but determined as the group hurried down the hall.

"Why don't we check, then, before we go running off to the Ministry?" Hermione said, her voice growing fainter as they all turned around the corner.

I had dropped my plate of cupcakes, but I ignored the mess, my mind working furiously.

What the hell was going on?

In retrospect, I probably should have chased after Harry and all his mates. I know, I know, any sane, intelligent girl would have just asked what was going on. But not me. No, of course not. I stood there, trying to figure out what they were talking about.

So... Sirius had been kidnapped by Voldemort, and was being tortured? At the Ministry? And Harry somehow knew this because... because of those weird vision things he had, like at Christmas with Mr. Weasley, I guess.

The others didn't sound completely sure they trusted Harry's judgement, and I understood their doubt.

Why was Voldemort at the Ministry? Why not take Sirius to some... creepy cave or a derelict lair or something? I could find out for sure though, if Harry was right. I just needed something of Sirius's.

* * *

"Dammit, dammit, dammit." I muttered as I desperately rummaged through Harry's trunk, throwing his possessions all around.

Finally my hands closed on a roughly wrapped package with a note stuck to it. I had seen Sirius giving it to Harry just before we had returned to Hogwarts after Christmas. Would I still be able to see Sirius with it, since he had given it to Harry? Harry had never opened it and made it officially his...

Well, only one way to find out.

I concentrated on the mirror and then I saw Sirius in one of the top rooms of Grimmauld Place, feeding Buckbeak. So that meant that Harry was wrong. Sirius was not with Voldemort at the Ministry...

I dropped the mirror on the ground and stumbled to my feet, leaving Harry's possessions thrown all about, and I ran out of the dorm.

I had to stop them from going. At best, Harry had just had a bad dream, and nothing would be at the Ministry. At worst... at worst, that dream had been planted in Harry's mind, and going to the Ministry would be a trap.

I nearly ran over Lee as she sprinted through the corridors.

"Eva?" he called after me, but I ignored him.

I had to find Harry before he left Hogwarts.

* * *

**So, it's time for the climax, the finale, whatever you prefer to call it! Next chapter is where the action is... Yay action!**

**But until then, please, feel free to review, tell me what you think, comment, constructively criticize me, etc., etc..**

**~XX~**


	21. Chapter 21

~*~Eva~*~

They had already gone, weren't anywhere near the corridor I had seen them going to.

I ran my fingers through my hair and grimaced. What the hell was I supposed to do now? I couldn't very well follow them, could I? But if Voldemort had planted that dream in Harry's mind, then they would all likely be killed at the ministry. So…I had to try and warn them, stop them from getting there.

If only I could Apparate, I could wait outside the ministry for them. But I hadn't learned to yet. That left only one way to get to the ministry.

I turned around and left the castle, running toward the quidditch pitch on shaking, trembling legs. I pulled out my wand once I had reached the changing rooms.

"Alohamora." I said, pointing my wand at the lock.

Nothing happened.  
What the hell? Fred had broken into the changing rooms when he had dragged me down here so many months ago, and we had flown together..

I stepped back from the door. I didn't have time to waste.

"Reducto!" I yelled. The door disintegrated to dust, and I stepped into the changing rooms.

It was dim, and it took a moment for my eyes to adjust. I spotted the broom closet and wrenched the door open. This was where all of the brooms were kept for those who didn't have or couldn't afford their own. There were several different types. Cleansweeps, Shooting Stars. What was the difference? Which ones went faster than the others? Hell if I knew.

I grabbed a Cleansweep, because that was the kind Fred and George had, and I returned to the field.

My hands were trembling as I mounted the broom.

"Okay, you can do this. Just don't look down, and everything will be alright." I whispered to myself.

I wish I believed that was true.

I tilted the front of the broom up, and I rose shakily into the air, a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Okay, okay, I can't do this. There's no way I can fly all the way to London on a broom. I've only been on a broom a couple of times, and even then only feet in the air. And I would have to fly very high if I wanted to avoid being seen by muggles.

I was on the verge of landing back on the ground and just returning to the castle and hoping nothing went wrong at the Ministry, but I thought again of Harry, Ron, Hermione, Luna, Ginny, and Neville. If something bad was going to happen at the ministry, and I just turned around and left them to head there thinking they were saving Sirius, then I was as good as killing them.

Fear of heights or not, I _had _to try to follow them. I clenched my eyes shut and made the broom rise higher and higher in the air. I was leaned far down on the broom, hugging it and holding on with all of my strength.

Finally I opened my eyes just a crack, and stopped rising in the air.

If the quidditch pitch was the northernmost point of Hogwarts, and Hogwarts was northeast of London, then... I would have to fly southwest. Hopefully I was right. That would be incredibly stupid of me to go flying off in the wrong direction. I turned the broom around, closed my eyes again, and headed for London.

My limbs were shaking badly as I crested over the top of the tallest tower at Hogwarts. I feared that if I didn't get myself under control, I would fall to my death. Of course, that thought didn't help my nerves much. Why the hell didn't I drag Lee along with me? At least then I would have somebody to cling onto. It wouldn't just be me up here.

Okay, I've got to try to slow down my frenzied, frantic breathing. I would probably pass out if I kept hyperventilating like this. My stomach lurched suddenly, and I very nearly vomited over the side of the broom. That would have been a nasty surprise for some unfortunate person.

* * *

I'm so stupid, I can't believe I'm doing this.

God, how big of an idiot am I? I'll probably get blown off the freaking broom. I don't know how to ride one, and now I'm jumping on one and riding it to London.

'Oh, I'm afraid of heights, so I think I'll ride a broom into the clouds and chase after a bunch of idiots running off on a rescue mission that is probably a trap or something.'

That makes perfect sense, Eva. I had always hoped I would turn out to be more intelligent that this, really.

Fred and George would tell me that I had more bravery than brains. Then they would tell me that I was making them proud. They would happily go to the ministry, and would make it seem like a big, fun adventure.

* * *

It seemed like hours and hours when I finally saw the busy lights of London far below, and I would have laughed aloud with relief if it hadn't still been so freaking scared.

I landed roughly, nearly crashing into a brick building, and I lay on the sidewalk, cherishing the feel of solid ground under me. When I had recovered, I scanned the street, looking for the entrance for the Ministry.

Ah, there it was, a red telephone booth. I had visited the ministry with Asha before, nearly three years ago. It had been 'bring a relative to work' day, and Asha had proudly given me a tour of the ministry, pointing out where all the important people worked.

"This is the secretary to the ministers office. Ah, and here is the minister himself! Stand up straight, stop slouching, Evanna! Be polite." That day had been incredibly boring.

I stepped into the phone booth and pressed some buttons. A woman's voice asked for my name and my purpose at the ministry.

"Er… Evanna Asher. I'm here to find my friends." And hopefully save them.

A small pin appeared in the coin chute. "Please affix the button to your robes and report to the visitors desk before entering the ministry." The voice said coolly. "Thank you, and have a nice day."

I picked up the button and read it as the phone booth began to move slowly into the ground.

_Evanna Asher, Social Call. _

If I hadn't been so worried about Harry and his mates, I would have grinned, but as it was, I could only shove the button in my pocket and pull my wand out, willing the elevator phone booth to move faster.

* * *

The Ministry was, strangely, completely empty.

I had expected maybe a night custodian or two, but the halls and rooms were silent. Was that good or bad?

I went straight to the main lift and pressed the call button. The lift had been on the ninth floor down, it seemed, and for lack of any other plan, I went down to the ninth floor also.

I stepped off the lift and saw a small brass nameplate against the opposite wall. _'Department of Mysteries' _it said. I had begun to rethink my plan, after several minutes of wandering through the halls. I hadn't seen nor heard anything that suggested someone was here besides myself. Why the hell didn't I just stay at Hogwarts? Oh, right. I had to try and save some people, play the hero. Because I'm a Gryffindor, right? And that's what we do, dash into danger without even thinking about it beforehand.

Finally I opened a door and found myself in a vast room with dark, dusty shelves everywhere. On the shelves were what looked like small glass orbs. I closed the door behind me and stepped into the room, walking through the tall aisles.

I saw a group of people standing beside a row of shelves and I recognized Ron and Ginny's flaming red hair even from way over here. I ran toward them, wanting to get out of this weird place "There you are!" I said as I neared them. They all whipped around and pointed their wands at me. I froze, my hands in the air. "Hey!"

"What are you doing here?" Harry demanded.

"How did you even get here?" Hermione said.

"Harry, Sirius isn't-" I began.

"Harry?" Ron called, interrupting me. Ron had wandered a few steps away, and now he was staring at a shelf of dusty orbs.

"What?" Harry said, glancing over at Ron.

"Have you seen this?" said Ron,

"What?" said Harry. The whole group moved over to see what had Ron so transfixed.

"It's — it's got your name on it." said Ron.

Harry moved a little closer. Ron was pointing at one of the small glass spheres that glowed with a dull inner light, though it was very dusty and appeared not to have been touched for many years.

"My name?" said Harry blankly, staring at it. I shifted uncomfortably. We didn't exactly have time to stand around staring at a glass ball.

"What is it?" Ron asked, sounding unnerved. "What's your name doing down here?"

He glanced along at the other labels on that stretch of shelf.

"I'm not here," he said, sounding perplexed. "None of the rest of us are here."

"Harry, I don't think you should touch it." said Hermione sharply, as he stretched out his hand.

"Why not?" he said. "It's something to do with me, isn't it?"

"Don't, Harry," said Neville suddenly. Harry looked at him. Neville's round face was shining slightly with sweat. He looked as though he could not take much more suspense.

"It's got my name on it." said Harry.

"We have to leave, Harry. Sirius isn't here." I said.

Harry ignored me and picked up the glass ball. And then, from right behind us, a drawling voice spoke.

"Very good, Potter. Now turn around, nice and slowly, and give that to me."

Black shapes began emerging out of thin air all around the group, blocking our way left and right; eyes glinted through slits in hoods, a dozen lit wand tips were pointing directly at our hearts; Ginny gave a gasp of horror, and I just barely managed to stifle my own.

I was too late to save them, and now I was in danger too.

"To me, Potter," repeated the drawling voice. I recognized it as Lucius Malfoy. He held out his hand, palm up.

I quickly counted the death eaters. Twelve of them. Far too many for us to fight, especially since they were so much more experienced than us.

A small voice in the back of my mind thought of Warren. He had always insisted something like this would happen. Dammit. He would have major 'I told you so' bragging rights after this. If I survived.

"To me," said Malfoy yet again.

"Where's Sirius?" Harry said.

Several of the Death Eaters laughed; a harsh female voice from the midst of the shadowy figures to our said triumphantly, "The Dark Lord always knows!"

"Always," echoed Malfoy softly. "Now, give me the prophecy Potter."

"I want to know where Sirius is!"

"_I want to know where Sirius is_!" mimicked the woman to his left.

"Harry." I whispered. "Sirius is safe. It wasn't real." He glanced at me, an expression of horror on his face.

The Death Eaters had slowly closed in, and now they were only feet away from us.

"The _little baby woke up fwightened and fort what it dweamed was twoo_," said the woman in a horrible, mock baby voice.

"Don't do anything," Harry muttered as Ron, Ginny and I raised our wands slightly. "Not yet -"

The woman who had mimicked him let out a raucous scream of laughter.

'You hear him? _You hear him_? Giving instructions to the other children as though he thinks of fighting us!'

"Oh, you don't know Potter as I do, Bellatrix," said Malfoy softly. "He has a great weakness for heroics; the Dark Lord understands this about him. Now give _me the prophecy, Potter_."

The whole time, my eyes were scanning the room around us. There was nothing but rows and rows of shelves. I wasn't quite sure where the doors were, but if we could just manage to lose ourselves among the rows, maybe the Death Eaters would lose track of us and we could find an escape route.

"It's time you learned the difference between life and dreams, Potter," said Malfoy. "Now give me the prophecy, or we start using wands."

"Yeah?" Harry said, raising his wand. The rest of us copied his movement. "Go on, then."

I sure hoped Harry knew what he was doing.

Turns out he did. The Death Eaters didn't strike.

The woman stepped forward, away from her fellows, and pulled off her hood. I recognized her from the Daily Prophet, and from all of my time Seeing for the Order. Azkaban had hollowed Bellatrix Lestrange's face, making it gaunt and skull-like, but it was alive with a feverish, fanatical glow.

"You need more persuasion?" she said, her chest rising and falling rapidly. "Very well - take the smallest one," she ordered the Death Eaters beside her. "Let him watch while we torture the little girl. I'll do it."

We all moved tighter around Ginny; Harry stepped sideways so that he was right in front of her, the prophecy held up to his chest.

"You'll have to smash this if you want to attack any of us," he told Bellatrix. "I don't think your boss will be too pleased if you come back without it, will he?"

She did not move; she merely stared at him, the tip of her tongue moistening her thin mouth.

"So," said Harry, "what kind of prophecy are we talking about, anyway?"

Harry was trying to buy time for us, I realized as he kept talking with the Death Eaters. But he couldn't keep this up, and one of us was eventually going to have to do something. Hermione slowly leaned toward me, mouthing the words 'Smash the shelves.' I gave her a fraction of a nod, and she passed the message to the others as Harry continued talking.

"So he wanted me to come and get it, did he?" he was saying. "Why?"

"_Why_?" Malfoy sounded incredulously delighted. "Because the only people who are permitted to retrieve a prophecy from the Department of Mysteries, Potter, are those about whom it was made, as the Dark Lord discovered when he attempted to use others to steal it for him."

"And why did he want to steal a prophecy about me?"

"About both of you, Potter, about both of you… haven't you ever wondered why the Dark Lord tried to kill you as a baby?"

I readjusted my sweaty grip on my wand, then eyed the shelves around us, picking out the one I would smash.

"Someone made a prophecy about Voldemort and me?" Harry said quietly, gazing at Lucius Malfoy "And he's made me come and get it for him? Why couldn't he come and get it himself?"

"Get it himself?' shrieked Bellatrix, over a cackle of mad laughter.

"The Dark Lord, walk into the Ministry of Magic, when they are so sweetly ignoring his return? The Dark Lord, reveal himself to the Aurors, when at the moment they are wasting their time on my dear cousin?'

"So, he's got you doing his dirty work for him, has he?" said Harry. "Like he tried to get Sturgis to steal it - and Bode?"

"Very good, Potter, very good…' said Malfoy slowly. 'But the Dark Lord knows you are not unintell—'

'NOW!' yelled Harry.

All of us standing behind Harry raised our wand, bellowed "_REDUCTO_!, and our curses flew in all different directions and shelves exploded in bursts of glass. The towering shelves swayed as a hundred glass spheres burst apart, pearly-white figures unfurled into the air and floated there, their voices echoing from who knew what long-dead past amid the torrent of crashing glass and splintered wood now raining down upon the floor.

'RUN!' Harry yelled, as the shelves swayed precariously and more glass spheres began to fall from above.

I dashed off in the direction I had come from, my feet slipping and sliding on slick shards of glass.

There were thunderous crashes coming from behind me, and someone yelled out. I darted left as I reached the end of a row. People were yelling curses, and there was the occasional crash. Footsteps were nearing me, and they were too heavy to belong to anyone but a Death Eater. My hand was trembling, but I pointed my wand at the shelves as I ran down the rows.

"_Reducto! Reducto_!" I collapsed several shelves of the glass orbs, only barely managing to avoid getting crushed underneath all the glass.

I reached a row of three doors, staring at them.

This wasn't the way I had gotten into this room… I heard Lucius Malfoy roar, "Leave Nott, _leave him, I say — _his injuries will be nothing to the Dark Lord compared to losing that prophecy. Jugson, come back here, we need to organise! We'll split into pairs and search, and don't forget, be gentle with Potter until we've got the prophecy, you can kill the others if necessary -Bellatrix, Rodolphus, you take the left; Crabbe, Rabastan, go right -Jugson, Dolohov, the door straight ahead - Macnair and Avery, through here - Rookwood, over there - Mulciber, come with me."

His voice got louder as he continued issuing orders, and I realized with horror that he was drawing closer. I wrenched open the door closest to me and ducked inside.

"_Colloportus_." I whispered. The door sealed behind me with a squelching noise, and I turned to see where I was.

Large basins of some kind of cloudy liquid took up most of the floor space, but there was a small door at the opposite end of the room. I weaved in between the basins, but I stopped curiously beside the largest one.

It was filled with a watery, reddish fluid, but there was a strange dark shape at the very bottom. It looked like it was moving, pulsing.

Against all my better judgement, I leaned down a bit, peering into the basin. Damn my curiosity.

The shape seemed to get bigger, and I could begin to make out edges and lines on it. It looked like some sort of black metal box, with images shifting on it's surface. But what the hell was it doing in a basin filled with what looked like watered down blood?

I decided that my curiosity would have to unsatisfied, and I was backing away when a stray end of my hair dipped into the edge of the liquid. The shape surfaced suddenly, and it spun and floated in the air.

I stepped backwards, then the box sort of pulsed and edged toward me. I pointed my wand at it, watching it warily. Occasionally, the shifting, blurred shapes on the box would surge forward into clarity.

I saw a filthy, primitive man affixing a rough stone spearhead to a wooden shaft. His tribe was to go to war with a clan of neighboring men. He grinned, displaying a row of gruesome rotting teeth. His tribe will come out victorious, and the men will be killed, the women taken.

The image faded, then was replaced by another. Men, wearing matching uniforms with shining brass buttons and stiff collars, marched in a row, holding metal objects that Muggles call guns. A man in front was carrying a tattered flag, and a man is riding beside him, playing a song on a trumpet.

Once more, the image faded and, another came forward.

The land was nothing more than a barren wasteland. Battles rage where brother slays brother, and there was little peace to be found anywhere. Before I could figure out exactly what I was seeing,(some kind of freaky vision of the future?) the box moved toward me again. I got ready to blast the box into oblivion, but as soon as I opened my mouth, it got bigger, made a whistling, hissing noise, then shattered.

Shards of the strange black metal flew toward me, and I cried out as they embedded into my skin. Goddamn stupid weird box. I stumbled back into another basin, nearly falling in.

I heard the doorknob turning, then a man's voice outside the door.

"It's locked."

"Then unlock it." Malfoy said, an annoyed edge in his voice.

I tried to ignore the pain shooting through me, and I ran across the room to the other door just as the other Death Eater said "Alohamora.".

The door opened, and one of the two men shouted something. A jet of silvery light flew at me, but I ducked behind a basin and it went above my head and hit the wall, where it began to smolder on the wood.

I peeked my head up and pointed my wand at Malfoy.

"_Stupefy_!" I yelled. He blocked the curse, and sent it rebounding back at me.

Dammit.

The door was only feet away from me. I raised up again, then dashed to the door, repeating the spell over and over. "_Stupefy! Stupefy!"_

I didn't hit either one of them, but that wasn't my intention. I ducked through the door, then ran down the corridor. I passed several doors, but nearly all of them were locked. I was terrified, and I could barely feel the stinging pain of the shards from the strange vision box in my skin, though I was bleeding fairly quickly.

I ran through a circular room, and a door was just swinging closed. I dashed over and grabbed the handle, slipping through the doorway and closing it behind me.

There was a small hallway, then I stumbled into a room with tanks lining the walls. Somebody was screaming, but their voice was muffled.

I ran to the voice and saw Ron struggling on the ground. He was being constricted by a large, slimy brain. I ran to him, grabbing at the tentacles and trying to rip them off of him. He was thrashing around, making it hard for me to grip the slimy brain.

"Ron! Ron, you have to be still!" I shouted. He didn't seem to hear me, either that or he just didn't comprehend my words.

I tried to sever the tentacles, but they didn't even release their hold on Ron slightly.

I was panicking. Ron was dying, the tentacles had covered his mouth and nose. I tried _Diffindo_, I tried _Stupefy_ing the tentacles, and finally I set fire to part of the brain. It shriveled up, releasing it's hold on Ron, and I nearly cried with relief as Ron lay there, gasping for air.

He sat up, then, and smiled dreamily at me, then pointed at the shriveled, smoldering brain."See that brain, see it? It'll get you if you touch it." Ron said. He giggled weakly.

"Ron, where did everybody else go?" I asked, putting my hands on his shoulders. "Please, tell me."He giggled again, then looked at me and grabbed a handful of my hair.

"Look at how twisty it is!" He said, his eyes fixed on the hair he had gripped.

"Yes, it's twisty, but Ron, please, try to understand me." I said desperately. What the hell was wrong with him?

Ron smiled dreamily at me. "I should find Harry and- I should show him your twisty hair."

"How about I go find him for you, Ron?"

He nodded. "Harry ran off through that funny colored door."

I pried Ron's hands out of my hair and got to my feet.

"Stay right here, okay? Don't touch anything." I said as I dashed to the grayish purple door. It wasn't exactly a funny color, but it was the only one in the room that wasn't just plain black.

"Tell Harry I said hi!" Ron called after me, giggling like a madman again.

* * *

I stepped through the door and right into chaos.

Harry and a bloody-faced Neville were facing a row of Death Eaters, all with their wands pointed at the two boys. The room looked like one of those ancient arena's, with the stone risers, but this one had a small dias in the center of the room, an archway with a fluttering curtain atop it.

The Death Eaters hadn't seen me yet... at least until I stepped on a bit of broken glass and it crunched under my shoe.

"God damnit." I muttered as they all looked over at me.

Worst timing in the world.

"Give me the prophecy, Potter, and we won't hurt either of your little friends." Malfoy said, holding out a black-gloved hand.

"Don'd gib it to him, Harry!" Neville shouted, trying to staunch the blood flowing from his obviously broken nose, and keep his wand pointed at the Death Eaters.

One of the Death Eaters, a lumpy-faced, hulking man, pointed his wand at me, as Bellatrix pointed her wand at Neville.

"Crucio!" they both said, and before I could get behind some sort of cover, a blinding, excruciating pain wracked my entire body, driving all rational thought from my mind, except "I want to die, just let me die, let it end.'

And then it did, but I didn't die. I lay there, curled up and panting, tears running down my face and soaking into my hair.

"Neville, Eva?" Harry said, his voice slightly shaky.

"I'm fine." I managed to force out.

"We're alrighd." Neville panted.

"That was just a taster!" said Bellatrix. She turned and gazed up at Harry. "Now, Potter, either give us the prophecy, or watch your little friends die the hard way!"I watched as Harry stretched out the hand in which he held the glass orb, the prophecy.

"Harry, don't!" Neville said again, but then, high above us, two more doors burst open and five more people sprinted into the room: Sirius, Lupin, Moody, Tonks and Kingsley.

The Death Eaters were completely distracted by the appearance of the members of the Order, who were now raining spells down upon them as they jumped from step to step towards the sunken floor. I crawled on my hands and knees through the darting bodies, the flashes of light, until I had reached the spot Neville and Harry were huddled.

"You're alright?" Harry asked as I crouched beside them. I nodded, but then Harry was jerked upward by a thick pair of arms. A Death Eater had his arms around his throat while trying to grab for the prophecy.

Neville stood and jabbed his wand through the eyehole of the man's mask, as I rammed my elbow into his side. (Honestly, I wasn't even thinking about casting a spell right then) He collapsed with a grunt, letting Harry go.

As Harry knelt there, gasping for air and recovering his breath, I turned away, a wild grin growing on my face.

It was happening, I was fighting Death Eaters, finally doing something. Sure, I was scared as hell, but I was fighting!

I joined Lupin, battling some bearded Death Eater. He was good, though, dodging and ducking all our spells, backing up a set of stone stairs.

"_Glisseo!" _I shouted, and the steps flattened and formed a sort of ramp, the Death Eater lost his balance, and Lupin jumped forward to finish him off.

"_Impedimenta!" _Bellatrix dashed by me, laughing madly, as if this whole affair was just plain fun.

Lupin had Stunned the Death Eater we were fighting, so I jumped down the last couple stairs and chased after Bellatrix. She stopped in front of Sirius, and they immediately began tauting each other, throwing curses this way and that.

"_Avada Kedavra_!" Bellatrix cried, a jet of green light nearly hitting Sirius. He would have been dead had he not tripped the unconscious body of Tonks.

"Careful, clumsy Sirius." Bellatrix laughed.

Sirius sent a jet of purplish flame at Bellatrix, but it passed harmlessly over her head. He backed up toward the strange archway with the fluttering curtain in the middle of the room.

"_Avada-" _Bellatrix began.

"_Obscuro_!" I shouted the first spell that came to mind. A black blindfold appeared over Bellatrix's eyes, and while it didn't make much of an effect, it at least stalled her for a second longer.

She ripped the blindfold away from her eyes, but Sirius had already yelled "_Stupefy!", _and a jet of red light hit her in the chest. She toppled over, rolling down the steps. That would certainly leave bruises. I grinned at Sirius up on the dias, and he gave me a small wave, then turned to assist one of the other Order members.

Harry was running out of the room, and for whatever reason, I followed. What was he doing?Harry didn't go far before slowing to a stop, in a high-ceilinged, cavernous room. I poked my head into the room, just around the edge of the doorframe. Harry was standing in front of a tall, thin, figure in dark gray robes. The man had unnaturally pale skin, a serpentine face, and red eyes.

I had seen him before, in visions. You would think I had become used to it. But seeing Voldemort in person and seeing him in a vision were two entirely different things. It was like seeing a grizzly bear in a magazine, then coming face to face with one in the woods. You become paralysed with terror, knowing, as you stare into it's eyes, that it could, that it would, kill you without a second thought.

So, here, I must confess something. I stayed there, hidden in my spot, as Harry and Voldemort spoke to each other. I could have run out there, to Harry's aid, but I knew there was probably a good chance I would be killed.

I berated myself, gave myself the guilt-trip,(and you call yourself a Gryffindor, Eva? Shame on you!) and was finally forcing my trembling legs to move, to step into the room, when Dumbledore appeared.

Thank god, I thought as I collapsed back against the wall.

Dumbledore would take care of things.

Dumbledore would keep Harry safe.

* * *

I did not hear much of what went on in the room, only faint, indistinct words, but it was a mere couple minutes before Dumbledore left the room, looking calm as ever.

"Is Harry-"

"Yes, I have sent him ahead, to await me in my office for a talk." Dumbledore said, looking at me with his pale blue eyes.

"Thank god."

"Indeed."

* * *

**Okay, so I couldn't let Sirius die... I mean, I love, love, love the guy (almost as much as Fred and George), no way I'm going to be all: "Hey Sirius, guess what? You still have to be killed." **

**What can I say? I'm weak!:D**

**Thank you to everyone who has reviewed!**

**Only five reviews last chapter, :( **

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**Next chapter is the last one, just sort of wrapping things up.**


	22. Chapter 22

~*~Eva~*~

Madam Pomfrey released me from the Hospital Wing the day of the end of the year feast.

I skipped it, though, and spent my time wandering the halls, just remembering.

There was the slightly charred tapestry I had accidentally set on fire in my second year, when I had tried to duel with George. We thought it would be cool. It wasn't, and instead, we got detentions for two weeks straight. There was the banister the twins and I had slid down one afternoon in our fourth year. Fred and George almost toppled over backwards and killed themselves. There was the secret passage that led down to the kitchens, where I used to come when I felt like having a bacon sandwich at one o'clock in the morning.

This had been my last year at Hogwarts, and for all the troubles of this year, I was going to miss this place.

* * *

I sat with Lee, Angelina, Alicia, and Katie on the Hogwarts Express.

As we headed away from the castle, I kept my face pressed to the window, my eyes fixed on Hogwarts. I was ready to leave, but then again I wasn't.

When it had finally faded into the distance, I sighed and relaxed in my seat. Well, that was it.

I would never be seeing Hogwarts again, never would I snuggle into my (or rather, Fred's) four-poster bed, never would I sit in the stands and scream myself hoarse over the Gryffindor quidditch team. There would be no more parties and impromptu sleep-overs in the common room, no more visits to Hogsmeade and holding hands over mugs of butterbeer. No more running through the corridors after curfew with the twins, because we had stayed out late exploring the corridors and passageways and shortcuts.

Normally all these thoughts would have made me melancholy and sad, but I was too excited to see my family and Fred and George again. What are stone walls and floors compared to the happy smiles of those I love?

* * *

Katie was in tears when the train finally slowed to a stop. She hugged all of us tightly, sobbing something indistinct, but we got the gist of it.

"We'll miss you too, Katie." we all assured her.

Angelina and Alicia hugged me goodbye and left. "I know I'll be seeing you again, Lee." I said.

He knew all about the Order, and he had talked of joining up once the war begun.

We hugged goodbye anyway, and I joined Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny as they retrieved their luggage and got off the train.

I was as surprised as the others when we all saw members of the Order waiting just outside the train doors.

There was Mad-Eye Moody, looking quite as sinister with his bowler hat pulled low over his magical eye as he would have done without it, his gnarled hands clutching a long staff, his body wrapped in a voluminous travelling cloak. Tonks stood just behind him, her bright bubble-gum-pink hair gleaming in the sunlight filtering through the dirty glass of the station ceiling, wearing heavily patched jeans and a bright purple T-shirt bearing the legend _The Weird Sisters. _Next to Tonks was Lupin, his face pale, his hair greying, a long and threadbare overcoat covering a shabby jumper and trousers. At the front of the group stood Mr and Mrs Weasley, dressed in their Muggle best, and finally, Fred and George, freckled and grinning, both wearing brand-new jackets in some lurid green, scaly material.

Mrs. Weasley was the first to rush forward, hugging Ron and Ginny tightly, then embracing Harry, Hermione, and me.

"What are _they _supposed to be?" Ron asked, pointing at the twin's jackets.

"Finest dragonskin, little bro'," said Fred, giving his zip a little tweak. "Business is booming and we thought we'd treat ourselves."

I stepped over to them, and hugged George first, despite Fred's open arms. "Missed you, Georgie." I said happily as he wrapped his arms around me.

"Missed you too." He pushed me towards Fred, who wrapped me in an even bigger hug, squishing me against him like he was trying to crush me. Not that I minded much. God, it was so good to see them both.

"Trying to kill me?" I gasped. "I knew you had it in for me."

"Turns out that I kinda missed you." He said with a grin as I managed to loosen his grip around me.

"Good. Maybe next time you two fly away into the sunset, you'll take me along."

I smiled at him, listening to everybody else cheerfully greeting each other.

Fred leaned his head down and kissed me softly. "I guess I _could_ bring you along. You'd have to earn your keep, though."

I lifted my arms up and tangled my hands in his hair as he kissed me again. The fact that we were in a super crowded train station made no difference. I think when you're pretty much in love with somebody, you just lose all sense of propriety.

"I could do that." I mumbled, hugging him again and burying my face in his chest. "Nice suit, by the way."

"I thought you'd like it. Also, I got something for you, also in dragonskin. Remember our letters?"

I looked up at him. "You didn't…" I glanced around. Nobody seemed to have noticed Fred and I. "Dragonskin nightclothes?" I hissed.

Fred smirked at me. "Had them specially made. They might be a bit tight… but that's okay."

"I won't wear them." I said stubbornly. "And… your suit smells funny."

He smiled at me and kissed me again.

"You two are just adorable." said Mrs. Weasley from behind me.

Fred and I both jumped, letting go of each other.

"Fred, you didn't tell me you two were in a relationship." she continued.

"Mum…"

"I'm happy for you, Fred. I told your father years ago that you were crazy about little Eva,"

"Mum." Fred glanced over at me, shrugging.

"but he thought that you two were just friends. Well, it's just a mother's intuition, you know. And it's so nice that you finally worked up the courage to-"

"Mum!" said Fred desperately, interrupting her.

I hugged Mrs. Weasley again, grinning. "I should go find my family." I said.

She nodded, patting my back. "I'm sure I'll be seeing you fairly often now. You will be working with the Order, dear?"

I nodded. I kind of had to, I suppose, what with the war beginning.

"And you'll visit the joke shop sometime, of course." George said. He had left Ron and the others and rejoined us.

"Of course. I'll get around to it eventually." I said.

George hugged me again, and I finally managed to extricate myself from Fred's arms. He kept kissing me, and, well… it was hard not to kiss him back.

I waved at the twins, then grabbed my trunk and wandered around the station to look for my own family.

"Vannie!" I heard a little boy scream, and then something barreled into me, almost knocking me down.

"Elliot." I laughed, hugging my little brother tightly.

He launched into a very detailed account of his year, and he was telling me about how he'd accidentally levitated his cat onto the roof of our house, when my parents caught up to us.

They hugged me, and my mother was crying and trying to hide it, and my father was patting me on the back and telling me how proud he was that I had finished up at Hogwarts without being expelled. (He always used to insist being friends with the twins would get me kicked out of Hogwarts. Silly dad.)

We passed the Weasley's as we were leaving King's Cross Station, and of course we had to stop and talk again.

"Oh, Eva. I haven't seen you in forever." said George.

"It's been ages." said Fred as he threw an arm around my shoulders.

Elliot seemed transfixed by the twins' dragonskin suits. He kept poking at George's leg.

"What's that? Is that lizard?" he asked.

"Nope. Dragon."

Elliots eyes widened. "Did _you_ kill it?"

Fred grinned. "_I_ killed it. George just kind of cowered a bit, and did some screaming."

"Cowering and screaming is a very important part of dragon-slaying, Fred." I said seriously. "Without George, you would have surely died."

My father and Mr. Weasley were discussing something called fridgerdaters, and Mrs. Weasley and my mum were whispering something to each other. What with their frequent glances at Fred's arm around my shoulders, and by the way their faces looked each time Fred kissed my cheek, or my forehead,(which he did often) I knew exactly what they were talking about.

* * *

Part of my life was over.

I was no longer a student; no longer would I walk the halls of Hogwarts, carefree and thinking nothing of the future. Voldemort was back, and now that everybody knew and accepted that, war was imminent. And I wasn't going to just sit back and let others fight for me.

It would be hard, certainly. Is war ever really easy?

I knew that when I continued Seeing, the nightmares would resume. I would wake up screaming. I would continue to See, though.

Maybe it was because I was here in a sunny, crowded train station with my family, maybe it was because I was with my best friends again, or maybe it was because Fred had accidentally touched my locket and it had immediately turned a deep red color, but the thought of the nightmares did not terrify me near as much.

War is coming, yet I have never been happier.

* * *

**…Okay, that's the end!**

**Thank you so much to everybody who has stuck with the story until here, and I hope you didn't find reading it a complete waste of time… Tell me your thoughts on it… click review!**

**-AllHailTheQueen**

**~XX~**

**What am I working on now? **

**Vanity and Passion (title to be changed), an Adventure/Romance/Friendship/a bunch of other categories. Fred/OC (because it's just no fun without the Weasley twins)! Here's a bit from the beginning:**

I am going to die.  
This information is of course very general, and useless without a greater degree of specifity. Everyone dies eventually, in one fashion or another, and often against their better judgement.  
But usually it isn't under this sort of circumstance. Even in the Wizarding World, being murdered by Greek soldiers invading the city of Troy is... odd.  
Ah, but you have no idea what I'm going on about, do you?  
I should probably start at the beginning.


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